i  0 


EXCHANGE 


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HEROIC  FRANCE 


BY 


ANNA  BOWMAN   DODD 


AUTHOR  OF 

"Three  Normandy  Inns,"  "Falaise,  the  Town  of 

the  Conqueror,"  "On  the  Knees  of 

the  Gods,"  etc.,  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

POOR'S  MANUAL  COMPANY 
1915 


ID  544- 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
ANNA  BOWMAN  DODD 


PRESS   OF 
POOR'S   MANUAL.   NEW  YORK 


MRS.  DODD'S  BOOKS 
Cathedral  Days. 
Three  Normandy  Inns. 
Glorinda. 
On  The  Broads. 

Falaisa — The  Town  of  The  Conqueror. 
The  American  Husband  in  Paris. 
In  The  Palaces  of  The  Sultan. 
On  TheKnees  of  The  Gods. 
In  and  Out  of  a  French  Country  House. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
A  Nation  in  Arms      .     .     .     . 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Caillaux  Trial      ........     11 

CHAPTER  III 

The  President's  Visit  to  Russia      ....     20 

CHAPTER  IV 

A  German  View  oi  France     ......     33 

CHAPTER  V 

The  Assassination  of  Jaures      .....      45 

CHAPTER  VI 

The  Week  of  Dread      ........     55 

CHAPTER  VII 

France  —  the  Living  Sword     ......     69 

00 

CO  CHAPTER  VIII 

CO      When  the  Germans  were  at  Compiegne      .     .      83 


oo 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IX 

Paris  on  the  Eve  of  Capture       ....          100 

CHAPTER  X 

How  Paris  was  Saved 110 

CHAPTER  XI 

The  Story  of  JLille's  Abandonment       .     .     .     127 

CHAPTER  XII 

The  Army  I  Saw  at  Lisieux 136 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  German  Fort  Near  Caen 146 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Modern  Frenchmen 154 

CHAPTER  XV 

Some  Racial  Traits 174 

CHAPTER  XVI 

The  Contrast  in  Ideals  196 


Heroic  France 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Nation  in  Arms 

A  FRANCE  that  vibrated  to  a  com- 
mon, passionate  emotion,  and  from 
the  Cotes  du  Nord  to  the  Cotes 
de  TAzur ;  the  great  heart  of  France  throb- 
bing with  such  intensity  of  feeling  that 
her   lips  in  the  first  hours  of  the  shock 
of   the  tremendous   realities  before   her 
were   all   but   mute — this    mighty  heart 
of  France  on  the  second  day  of  August 
had   leapt   within    her    with   the    same 
sense   of   sacrificial   joy   as   the   mother 
feels  when    the  child  below  her  bosom 
1 


FRANCE 


stirs  with  life;  her  own  life  may  be  the 
forfeit  of  her  triumphant  assurance  of 
the  new  forces  within  —  but  what  mother, 
what  nation  gifted  with  such  glorious 
endowments  of  mind,  of  nature  and  of 
spirit  as  France  counts  the  cost  of 
sacrifice? 

Never,  perhaps,  in  the  long  centuries  of 
her  historic  existence  has  France  experi- 
enced the  single-hearted  enthusiasm  that 
swept  the  country  as  village  after  vil- 
lage, town  after  town  read  the  order  for 
a  general  mobilization.  On  that  second 
day  of  August  France  presented  to  the 
eyes  of  the  world,  as  she  must  to  those  of 
her  marveling  enemy,  a  nation  as  closely 
knit,  as  intimately,  as  inextricably  welded 
together,  as  Germany  believed  her  to  be 
hopelessly  divided.  Party  hate,  politi- 
cal dissensions  had  disappeared,  as  if  by 
magic.  There  were  neither  Socialists, 


THE  NATION  IN  ARMS  3 

nor  Royalists,  nor  Internationalists,  nor 
Radicals.  There  was  one  France,  superb 
in  its  courage,  conscious  of  its  moral  and 
military  strength,  outwardly  calm,  yet 
burning  hot  within,  from  the  very  intens- 
ity of  its  joyous  enthusiasm. 

At  last,  France  was  to  be  allowed  to 
fight! 

The  long  years  of  her  suppressed  hate; 
the  shame,  the  humiliation  she  had  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  her  deadly,  powerful 
enemy;  the  spectre  of  dread  that  had 
haunted  her  prosperous  fields,  that  had 
hovered  over  her  wide-spread  commerce, 
that  had  made  every  move  in  the  defen- 
sive, international  game  fraught  with 
possible  danger — this  hate  could  at  last 
find  its  longed-for  victim.  The  shame 
of  Fashoda  and  the  humiliation  that  had 
followed  the  dismissal  of  one  of  France's 
most  gifted  ministers — of  Monsieur  Del- 


4  HEROIC  FRANCE 

casse — could  now  be  wiped  out  by  a 
French  invasion  of  Berlin.  The  haunting 
dread  of  war  could  be  turned  into  the 
blazing  glory  of  victory. 

In  all  France  there  was,  indeed,  but  one 
mind  and  one  heart.  She  was  a  vast 
family,  fronting  a  common  enemy. 

This  all  but  instantaneous  welding  to- 
gether had  been  accomplished  as  though 
by  enchantment.  In  less  than  a  few  days 
after  the  violent  explosions  of  party  dis- 
cussions, fired  by  the  disgraceful  Caillaux 
trial,  and  only  four  days  after  the  assas- 
sination of  Jaures,  the  miracle  of  a  patri- 
otic France,  from  which  every  vestige  of 
party  strife  had  disappeared,  was  the 
nation's  answer  to  the  misled  German 
War-Lords.  The  anxious  days  that  had 
elapsed  before  the  mobilization  of  the 
French  army,  and  the  nervous  tension 
resulting  from  the  fluctuations  of  hope 


THE  NATION  IN  ARMS  5 

and  fear  of  the  worst,  had  worked  upon 
the  sensitive  French  nature.  When  the 
order  for  mobilization  was  made  public, 
France  had  found  herself.  The  test  of 
the  new  forces  that  had  been  at  work 
forging  a  new  France  was  triumphantly 
met. 

From  the  very  first  the  whole  nation 
presented,  to  the  last  man,  that  singular 
calm,  that  power  of  restraint  and  of  a  dig- 
nified acceptance  of  the  chances  that  lay 
before  them — for  success,  for  victory,  or 
for  a  possible  crushing  defeat, — that  were 
to  prove  a  moral  force  in  French  charac- 
ter wholly  unsuspected;  as  yet,  perhaps, 
even  unknown  to  themselves.  Self-revel- 
ation comes  as  a  lightning  flash  in  the 
storm  that  tests  character. 

When  France  rose  in  heroic  defense  of 
her  soil,  her  people,  her  rights,  and,  also 
of  that  higher  form  of  civilization  of 


6  HEROIC  FRANCE 

which  she  need  not,  unlike  her  clumsier 
neighbor,  boast  in  loud,  trumpet-blasts— 
since  the  delicate  and  exquisite  flower  of 
her  civilization  blooms  in  one  form  or  an- 
other throughout  all  Christendom,  liter- 
ally shedding  its  beneficent  perfume  on 
the  just  and  on  the  unjust — from  the  in- 
stant France  flew  to  carry  her  flag  to  the 
front  she  was  to  give  the  world  one  of  the 
first  of  the  surprises  the  war  was  to  yield. 
The  order  to  mobilize  was  received 
throughout  the  entire  country  with  sur- 
prising, with  superb  calm. 

"Ca  y  est!" 

> 

This  was  the  cool,  phlegmatic  comment 
that  leapt  to  the  lips  of  thousands  of  men, 
as  they  read  that  within  twenty-four 
hours  they  were  to  be  ready  to  join  their 
regiments.  In  Paris,  as  in  the  provinces, 
workmen  and  nobles,  peasants  and  manu- 
facturers, merchants  and  petite  rentiers, 


THE  NATION  IN  ARMS  1 

left  workshops,  chateaux,  farms,  factories, 
shops  and  modest  homes,  at  the  word  of 
command,  in  orderly  haste.  The  last 
quality  one  would  predict  Frenchmen 
would  display  at  such  a  crisis  was  the 
one  conspicuously  exhibited.  The  whole 
nation  was  stiffened  into  an  attitude  of 
rigid  sang-froid.  Now  and  again  the 
deeper,  inner  meaning  of  a  word  is  re- 
vealed. The  Frenchman's  coining  of  that 
compound  word  "sang-froid"  was  no 
accident.  Beneath  all  the  effervescence, 
the  garrulity,  the  explosive  enthusiasm, 
there  are  other  more  profound,  ethno- 
logical deposits  in  French  character. 
That  deeper  source  can  only  be  stirred  by 
the  moving  finger  of  pain  or  of  some  great 
national  calamity. 

"Tout  le  peuple  francais,  sans  distinc- 
tion de  classes,  est  fremissant  d'impati- 
ence  et  garde  le  sang-froid,  indice  de  son 


8  HEROIC  FRANCE 

inebranlable  volonte" — and  this  from  a 
Bordelaise  Journal! 

Those  of  us  who  witnessed  the  depart- 
ure of  the  French  troops  for  the  front; 
who  looked  upon  those  serene,  smiling, 
controlled  countenances  could  not  but 
marvel  at  so  surprising  a  revelation  of 
"cold-blooded"  courage. 

It  was  superb,  it  was  sublime — but  it 
seemed  hardly  French.  The  whole  will 
of  a  great  people  was  bent  to  a  single 
purpose.  Their  calm  was  not  want  of 
emotion.  It  was  rather  due  to  an  excess 
of  feeling. 

There  was  another  element  colder  still 
than  the  steely  bravery  animating  the 
least  impressionable  "piou-piou."  There 
was  a  cold  hate  that  had  been  all  but 
unconsciously  nursed  to  this  white  heat 
and  for  long  years. 

"Pourvu  que  ce  soit  pour  cette  fois-ci." 


TEE  NATION  IN  ARMS  9 

That  cry  of  a  Vosges  peasant  as  he 
read  his  order  to  don  his  uniform,  was 
the  general,  the  universal  prayer  that 
burst  from  the  lips  of  millions  of  French- 
men. The  waiting  on  time  to  bring  about 
its  revenges  had  worn  deep  furrows  into 
French  patience.  The  hate  of  Prussia, 
that  had  lain  half-buried  beneath  politi- 
cal upheavals,  now  blazed  forth  with 
volcanic  ferocity. 

The  lava-flood  of  national  enthusiasm, 
of  this  re-kindled  passion  for  revenge,  had 
swept  France,  burying  beneath  its  fiery 
outbreak  all  minor  discords,  all  purely 
family  wreckage.  The  issues  before  the 
nation  were  known  to  be  momentous. 
From  the  very  first,  though  brave  France 
could  say  with  firm  lips,  "Well,  it  has 
come  at  last.  We  are  ready," — not  know- 
ing she  was  only  half-ready — yet  from 
the  very  first  it  knew  the  coming  struggle 


10  HEROIC  FRANCE 

was  to  be  for  France's  very  existence.     It 
was  to  be  a  life  and  death  combat. 

These  tragic  days  had  been  preceded 
by  the  sensational  Caillaux  trial,  a  trial 
whose  social  and  political  consequences 
had  aroused  the  bitterest  feeling  through- 
out France. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Caillaux  Trial 

IN  the  life  of  nations,  as  in  that  of 
individuals,  tragic  events   in   certain 
crises   have   been   known   to    follow 
in  such  quick  succession  as  to  suggest 
a    conscious    planning    of    dramatic    se- 
quence.    Later  investigations  reveal  the 
long    chain    of    casualities    which    pre- 
cipitated the  climax. 

During  this  mid-July,  1914,  France 
was  rent  and  torn,  was  at  once  horrified 
and  appalled,  as  she  was  also  to  be 
vastly  entertained  by  the  crowded  figures 
that  filled  her  stage. 

11 


12  HEROIC  FRANCE 

France  at  this  eventful  period  was 
one  vast  audience.  All  eyes  were  cen- 
tered on  the  Caillaux  trial.  As  all  the 
world  remembers,  M.  Calmette,  Editor 
of  the  Paris  Figaro,  had  determined 
upon  the  ruin  of  M.  Caillaux,  then 
Minister  of  Finance. 

Although  posing  as  a  patriot,  inspired 
by  the  loftiest  ideals  of  political  conduct, 
M.  Calmette's  methods  of  attack  were 
of  the  lowest  defamatory  character.  He 
even  descended  to  the  crime  of  printing 
private  letters.  It  was  known  through- 
out Paris  that  two  letters,  of  a  par- 
ticularly intimate  character,  were  in 
his  possession;  the  publication  of  these 
letters  would  have  meant  the  ruin  of 
the  ex-Prime  Minister's  wife.  Driven 
to  the  point  of  desperation  by  the  fear 
that  Calmette  might  publish  these  letters 
to  damage  still  further  her  husband's 


THE  CAILLAUX  TRIAL  13 

reputation  as  well  as  her  own,  to 
prevent  such  an  exposure  Madame 
Caillaux  sought  the  editor  in  his  own 
office  and  killed  him. 

In  the  ensuing  trial  every  element 
essential  to  drama,  as  well  as  situations 
replete  with  tragic  consequences,  were 
presented  with  lavish  abundance.  The 
central  figure  at  the  opening  of  the 
trial  was  the  murderess — a  woman. 
The  lady,  one  must  call  her  such — she 
being  the  wife  of  an  ex-Prime  Minister 
— was  sufficiently  young  to  excite  both 
interest  and  curiosity;  her  past  was 
one  a  gossip-thirsty  public  delights  in, 
since  her  history  was  flecked  by  those 
somewhat  dubious  lights  and  dusty 
shadows  that  play  upon  an  adventurous 
career. 

The  other  dramatis  personae  in  this 
sensational  trial  were  such  as  one  looks 


14  HEROIC  FRANCE 

upon,  indeed,  chiefly  from  across  the 
footlights;  when  thus  grouped  together, 
they  serve  as  an  effective  background. 
Only  in  half  a  century  or  so  can  one 
hope  to  see  them  figuring  realistically 
in  a  witness-box. 

Ex-Prime  Ministers;  ministers  who 
had  stood  high  in  public  favor;  political 
adherents;  personal  friends;  and  an 
ex-wife, — each  in  turn,  day  after  day, 
mounted  behind  the  iron  railing.  As 
the  trial  proceeded,  little  by  little  its 
original  raison  d'etre  seemed  to  have 
been  quite  changed.  In  lightning  flashes 
successive  revelations  were  playing  their 
lurid  light  on  corruption  in  high  places. 
The  swift  change  from  the  judging  of 
a  crime  supposed  to  have  been  prompted 
by  intimate  personal  motives,  to  issues 
of  vast  political  and  national  importance, 
made  this  trial  second  only  in  dramatic 


THE  CAILLAUX  TRIAL  15 

setting  and  far-reaching  consequences 
to  the  Dreyfus  scandal. 

To  the  curious  eyes  of  the  world  at 
large,  the  scenes  presented  in  the  Paris 
criminal  courts  during  the  proceedings 
of  this  famous  trial  were  typically, 
essentially  French — for  the  world  at 
large  knows  little  of  either  French  life 
or  of  French  character.  To  semi-amused, 
semi-contemptuous  spectators,  France  is 
the  nation  which  above  all  others  is 
dramatic,  with  a  highly  developed  taste 
for  sensation.  Her  methods  of  admin- 
istering justice  are  peculiarly  her  own. 

In  this  particular  trial  political  passion 
was  proved  to  be  stronger  far  than  the 
justice  to  be  done  to  a  dead  editor. 
The  witness  box  had  been  turned  into 
a  tribune,  from  which  orators  could 
hurl  frenzied  attacks  on  their  political 
enemies.  Tawdry  political  linen,  soiled 


16  HEROIC  FRANCE 

and  stained,  of  past  scandals  was  seized, 
was  shaken  into  shape  of  fresh  invective, 
was  exultingly  exposed  to  the  public 
gaze,  for  public  condemnation.  Intimate 
domestic  and  marital  scenes  passed  be- 
fore the  amused  eyes  of  the  world  with 
a  cinematograph  realism.  All  the  earlier 
issues  lost  their  edge  of  importance, 
however,  when  the  will  of  the  dead 
editor  was  produced  and  was  read  to 
a  scandalized  public;  the  will  itself  was 
proof  sufficient  to  condemn  Monsieur 
Calmette's  base  methods  of  securing  his 
13,000,000  of  francs;  but  the  presumably 
illegal  working  of  the  power  vested  in 
high  government  officials  for  possession 
of  the  document  aroused  France  to  a 
storm  of  indignant  protest. 

When  the  verdict  of  acquittal  came, 
the  scene  in  the  courtroom — a  scene  of 
indescribable  fury  with  its  shouts  and 


THE  CAILLAUX  TRIAL  17 

cries  of  irrepressible  rage,  of  impotent 
anger — was  enacted  on  a  vaster  scale 
on  the  stage  of  political,  religious  and 
social  France. 

To  the  French  clear,  logical  vision, 
it  was  as  though  France  itself,  its 
institutions,  its  courts  of  law  and  justice, 
had  been  on  trial.  Republican  France 
seemed  to  confess  openly  her  democratic 
form  of  government  had  gone  down  in 
failure.  France  felt  herself  stripped  of 
her  dignity;  naked  and  ashamed,  she 
was  held  up  to  be  the  mock  of  nations. 

It  was  the  hour  for  the  triumph  of 
the  enemies  of  the  government.  Roy- 
alists and  those  young  enthusiasts — the 
Cadets  du  Roi — could  lift  their  heads; 
with  this  imminent  collapse  of  the 
Republic  the  little  heir  of  the  Napoleon 
dynasty,  son  of  a  Belgian  princess, 
might  yet  wear  a  crown.  The  Catholics 


18  HEROIC  FRANCE 

bewailed  the  decay  of  the  faith;  the 
awful  spectacle  of  this  lowering  of  all 
ideals  of  honor,  of  justice,  was  surely 
due  to  the  separation  of  church  and 
state;  the  systematic  neglect  of  early 
religious  training  and  revolt  against 
clerical  authority  had  shown  France, 
by  the  most  eloquent  of  proofs  — 
results — the  mistake  of  its  policy  of 
suppression.  Socialists  and  Radicals  in 
their  turn  rubbed  their  exultant  hands; 
the  more  signs  of  decay  in  the  social 
fabric,  the  easier  it  would  be  to  overturn 
the  tottering  edifice. 

There  was,  indeed,  such  an  unchaining 
of  the  passions  as  seemed  to  prelude  a 
revolutionary  outburst.  All  the  air  was 
rife  with  prophecy.  The  actual  Reign 
of  Terror,  one  was  told  by  alarmists, 
was  not  far  off;  the  Marat  of  the  coming 
Revolution  would  be  he  who  had  stood 


THE  CAILLAUX  TRIAL  19 

in  the  witness  box  haranguing  France 
and  the  world,  parading  his  eloquence 
to  prove  his  soiled  hands  clean — as  leader 
of  his  party — rather  than  wasting  valu- 
able time  in  defence  of  his  wife. 

Such  was  the  scene  set  upon  the  great 
French  stage  in  those  tragic  days  of 
the  mid-week  of  July. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  President's  Visit  to  Russia 

DURING  this  period  of  excitement 
and   of   national   demoralization, 
the  head  of  the  French  Republic 
was   conspicuously   absent.     As   though 
to  be  safely  out  of  the  turgid  plunge  of 
things,  President  Poincare,  it  was  thought 
by    many,    had   purposely    arranged   to 
pay    at    this   critical   time   a    series  of 
visits  to  certain  courts. 

Future   historians    in    describing    the 

tragi-domestic     episodes     of     the    great 

trial,  the  chaotic  conditions  of  French 

political  life  and  the  apparently  unsettled 

20 


PRESIDENTS  VISIT  TO  RUSSIA    21 

state  of  France — at  this  eventful  period 
of  her  history — will  pause,  with  a  certain 
conscious  rise  of  the  pulse,  when  depict- 
ing the  Presidential  visit  to  Russia.  Those 
writers  gifted  with  the  power  of  present- 
ing an  historic  pageant  with  brilliant 
effect  will  be  furnished  with  adequate 
material. 

Beneath  Russian  skies  magnificent 
fetes  were  being  given.  The  Czar  of  all 
the  Russias  was  entertaining  in  the  grand 
manner  of  court  ceremonials  so  rapidly 
passing  away,  his  friend  and  ally  Presi- 
dent Poincare.  The  enormous  silhou- 
ette of  the  "France,"  bearing  on  board 
the  French  President,  the  Prime  Minister, 
Monsieur  Viviani  and  their  suite,  had 
slowly  crept  up,  on  a  date  destined  to  be 
of  historic  importance — on  the  20th  of 
July — had  slowly  made  its  way  through 
a  semi-cloud-burst  to  the  haven  of  Cron- 


22  HEROIC  FEA^CE 

stadt.  At  the  moment  of  coming  to 
anchorage  the  warm  Russian  sun 
flooded  the  gaily  decked  yachts,  the 
cruisers  and  the  steamers  that  crowded 
the  waters  as  though  to  gild  the  impres- 
sive scene  with  a  glow  that  should  match 
the  thundering  welcome  of  the  guns  and 
the  outburst  of  enthusiastic  acclamations. 
At  the  moment  of  the  meeting  between 
the  Czar  and  the  President  aboard  the 
Imperial  yacht,  those  thousands  of  Rus- 
sians crowding  the  shores  burst  in  im- 
passioned joy  into  simultaneous  chanting 
of  the  Russian  hymn;  and  as  the  yacht 
"Alexandria"  wended  its  way  toward 
Peterhof,  in  both  Russian  and  French 
ears  there  rang  the  equally  stirring  notes 
of  the  Marseillaise. 

During  the  Presidential  visit,  fetes  and 
banquets  were  brilliant  interludes  to  the 
graver  business  of  the  reviews  of  the  fleet 


PRESIDENT'S  VISIT  TO  RUSSIA    23 

and  army  and  to  the  still  weightier,  more 
secret  interviews  of  the  heads  of  the  two 
great  states  and  of  their  ministers. 

No  one  present  was  more  capable  of 
appreciating,  both  as  a  man  of  many 
worlds  and  in  the  truest  artistic  sense,  the 
picturesque  splendor  of  this  Russian  wel- 
come than  the  French  President.  It 
has  been  said  of  him  that  "of  all  the 
French  presidents,  he  is  the  first  who  is 
capable  of  judging  a  work  of  art  from 
the  artists'  standpoint."  The  banquet 
tendered  him  by  his  Imperial  host  in  the 
great  hall  of  Peter  the  Great  presented 
to  the  trained  French  eyes  those  con- 
trasts that  mark  our  century's  progress 
in  a  levelling  of  the  classes. 

Against  the  fairy-like  background  of 
the  famous  Gobelin  tapestries,  pinks  and 
gladioli  repeated  the  delicate  bloom  of  the 
woven  threads.  Above  the  glitter  of  the 


24  HEROIC  FRANCE 

massive  silver  service  there  shone  a 
circlet  of  prismatic  lights  flashing  from 
crowned  heads  and  jewelled  necks  such 
as  this  Russian  court  alone  can  boast. 
The  Empress  and  her  court  ladies  lent 
their  Russian  grace  and  beauty  as  though 
to  offset  the  rugged,  massively-built  fig- 
ures of  the  Grand  Dukes,  Generals, 
Admirals,  courtiers  and  grandees  whose 
brilliant  uniforms  and  jewelled  orders 
rivalled  the  splendor  of  the  ladies'  toil- 
ettes. 

Three  soberly-clad  Frenchmen  were  the 
guests  of  honor.  President  Poincare's  dull 
Republican  black  was  relieved  by  the 
reds  of  the  Grand  Cordon  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor.  Monsieur  Delcasse's  some- 
what coarsely-modeled,  but  vividly  bril- 
liant face,  instinct  with  the  power  of 
highly  vitalized,  intellectual  forces;  and 
Monsieur  Vivani's  plebeian  but  strongly- 


PRESIDENT'S  VISIT  TO  RUSSIA    25 

featured  countenance  rose  above  the 
blacks  and  whites  of  their  evening  dress — 
blacks  and  whites  sharply  contrasting 
with  the  splendor  of  court  costumes  and 
gold  wrought  uniforms.  Dress  has  been 
proven  to  indicate  character  and  to  illus- 
trate historic  periods.  National  and  even 
ethical,  as  well  as  political  movements — 
certain  analysts  find — are  reflected  in  the 
dress  of  a  people.  Students  of  sociology 
would  doubtless  consider  the  Republican 
garb  worn  by  the  distinguished  French 
guests  at  these  imperial  festivities  indi- 
cative of  triumphant  democracy. 

One  tries  to  imagine,  indeed,  such  a 
scene  as  the  one  presented  at  that  magni- 
ficent banquet,  before  1870.  The  level- 
ling process  begun  in  the  assembling  of 
the  States  General  in  Paris  under  the 
doomed  Louis  XVI  was  not  to  find  its 
eventual  triumph  in  an  acceptance  of  the 


26  HEROIC  FRANCE 

great  principal  that  a  free  people  may  be 
as  strong  and  as  valuable — as  an  ally- 
as  a  nation  still  governed  by  monarchical 
rule  until  Republican  France  had  proved 
to  Europe  its  potential,  as  well  as  its 
financial  value.  Great  principles  for 
their  lasting  benefits  must  rest  upon  a 
secure  and  solid  basis.  The  French  Rev- 
olution entered  upon  its  true  reformatory 
work  after  Sedan.  The  slow  rise  of 
France  to  a  new  power  as  a  people  dates 
from  its  most  humiliating  defeat. 

From  the  political  point  of  view,  the 
presence  of  these  three  gifted  Frenchmen 
at  the  Russian  Court  at  this  critical 
period  of  the  Presidential  visit  was  a 
fortunate  circumstance.  The  work  of 
the  French  Ambassador  Monsieur  Del- 
casse,  at  the  Court  of  Petrograd,  during 
the  two  years  of  his  ambassadorial  mis- 
sion had  been  of  such  incalculable  bene- 


PRESIDENT'S  VISIT  TO  RUSSIA     27 

fit  to  French  interests,  to  his  country,  as 
well  as  to  the  Franco-Russian  Alliance 
that,  as  one  of  his  admirers  has  said, 
"France  will  never  know  what  it  owes  to 
Delcasse." 

To  President  Poincare  the  same  trib- 
ute will  eventually  be  paid.  Possessed 
of  the  fighting  quality  of  the  soldier- 
he  can  review  an  army  under  fire  and  to 
the  music  of  whistling  shells, — Monsieur 
Poincare  is  endowed  with  intellectual 
powers  of  a  high  order.  His  public 
speeches  are  the  speeches  of  a  statesman 
and  of  a  scholar.  He  has  the  French- 
man's charm  of  manner;  and  he  possesses 
also  that  exquisite  French  tact  that  lights 
upon  the  right  word  as  a  bee  upon  a 
flower.  In  appearance,  he  owes  little 
to  physical  advantages.  Yet  in  bear- 
ing, in  speech  and  in  gesture,  the 
French  President  conveys  the  impression 


28  HEROIC  FRANCE 

of  a  certain  distinction.  The  forces  with- 
in have  sculptured  the  physical  envelope 
— have  ennobled  it. 

In  the  epoch-making  meeting  of  the 
two  allies  whose  united  action,  together 
with  that  of  England  and  Belgium  is  to 
determine  the  future  of  Europe,  and  for 
years  to  come,  we  may  be  sure  that  the 
weight  of  Monsieur  Poincare's  personal 
influence,  as  well  as  the  breadth  of  his 
political  outlook  will  hereafter  be  made 
known.  In  every  circumstance  in  life 
the  personal  equation  plays  its  great  role. 

The  first  disquieting  rumors  of  a  possi- 
ble war  between  Austria-Hungary  and 
Servia  were  already  disturbing  the  peace 
of  European  cabinets.  The  three  dis- 
tinguished Frenchmen  then  gathered  to- 
gether in  the  Russian  capital  were  watch- 
ing with  nervous,  apprehensive  gaze 
those  danger  signals  Austria  was  uplift- 


PRESIDENTS  VISIT  TO  RUSSIA    29 

ing  before  not  only  Servian,  but  Euro- 
pean eyes. 

The  London  Times,  commenting  on  the 
"opportune  presence  of  the  French  Presi- 
dent at  the  Russian  court,"  said: 

"Monsieur  Poincare's  visit,  at  the 
moment  when  words  of  menace  and  de- 
fiance are  being  hurled  across  the  shores 
of  the  Danube,  is  a  happy  circumstance. 
His  visit  recalls  to  all  the  powers  the  base 
on  which  rests  the  peace  of  Europe,  and 
the  risks  that  a  conflict  will  surely  entail. 
This  visit  is  the  answer  to  the  preten- 
sions of  certain  Austrian  polemics  to  the 
effect  that  the  differences  between  Aus- 
tria and  Servia  interest  them  alone,  and 
that  an  armed  conflict  between  them  can 
be  localized.  Austria-Hungary  is  a 
party  to  the  Triple  Alliance,  and  as  such, 
she  cannot  engage  in  a  dangerous  quarrel 
without  exposing  her  partners  to  obvious 


30  HEROIC  FRANCE 

risks.  We  cannot  believe  that  these 
three  partners  are  disposed  to  allow  them- 
selves to  be  dragged  into  difficulties  with 
a  light  heart." 

With  a  light  heart ! 

The  words  are  freighted  with  sinister 
meaning. 

"The  light  heart"  was  not  the  heart  of 
Austria  beating  in  feeble  pulsations  in  the 
breast  of  an  octogenarian  Emperor 
doubly  enfeebled  by  age  and  sorrows,  nor 
in  that  of  his  semi-indifferent  people.  It 
was  in  the  heart  of  the  Kaiser,  of  his  un- 
ruly, headstrong  and  ambitious  heir,  and, 
as  we  now  know,  in  the  heart  of  the  Ger- 
man people,  carefully,  methodically  edu- 
cated and  trained  for  this  great  moment, 
that  there  pulsed  the  bounding  hope.  The 
heart  of  all  Germany  was  "light"  indeed; 
it  had  been  waiting  for  long  years  for  this 
golden  opportunity.  On  the  old  Emperor 


PRESIDENT'S  VISIT  TO  RUSSIA     31 

Francis  Joseph's  hesitating  hand  when 
at  the  last  he  showed  signs  of  wavering, 
of  accepting  terms  of  surrender  from 
Servia — the  Kaiser's  mailed  fist  bore 
down  on  that  wavering  doubt  with  the 
clutch  of  the  destroyer  about  to  be  robbed 
of  his  victim. 

Meanwhile,  the  speeches  interchanged 
between  the  Kaiser's  "cousin"  the  Czar 
and  President  Poincare  must  have  yield- 
ed interesting  reading  to  an  "honorable" 
Emperor  already  quietly  mobilizing  his 
large  army,  according  to  that  convenient 
"Kriegsgefahrzustand"  which  permits 
Germany  to  mobilize  without  declaring 
her  intention  to  do  so. 

The  assurances  interchanged  of  the 
"confraternity  which  exists  between  our 
armies  of  the  fleet  and  the  field"  as  facili- 
tating that  "ideal  of  peace,  which  inspires 
our  respective  countries,  conscious  of 


32  HEROIC  FRANCE 

their  forces;"  the  glasses  lifted  to  toast 
"the  strength  and  durability  of  our 
proven  alliances,  to  preserve  the  equil- 
ibrum  of  Europe" — such  noble  sentiments 
must  have  evoked  a  pleased  sense  of  grim, 
sardonic  humor  in  the  mind  of  the  man 
who  had  already  decided  on  a  Romano- 
Germanic  "conquest  of  the  world."  The 
Kaiser  had  also  his  ideal  of  peace;  yes, 
but  such  peace  as  was  to  be  purchased  by 
the  crushing  and  the  massacring  of  half 
Europe,  with  promises  of  "happiness"  to 
what  remained  of  the  maimed  and  ruined 
remnant. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  German  View  of  France 

AS  all  the  world  now  knows,  Germany 
did  indeed  believe  herself  to  be  as 
thoroughly  possessed  of  full  knowl- 
edge    for     gauging     France's     possible 
strength    and    her    more    than    known 
weaknesses,  as  she  was  also  assured  of 
the  complete  preparedness  of  her  own 
superb    and    supposed-to-be    irresistible 
army. 

The   world   knows   also    the    sources 
of  this  knowledge. 

Germany's  spies  had  been  as  carefully 
selected   for   their   base   work    as    they 
had  been  skilfully  placed  that  they  might 
33 


34  HEROIC  FRANCE 

penetrate  into  the  whole  frame-work 
of  French  life. 

Of  late  years  many  French  families 
have  found,  with  diminishing  incomes, 
that  a  certain  gratifying  economy  could 
be  practiced  by  employing  German  ser- 
vants. French  nature  is  singularly  un- 
suspecting unless  it  has  grounds  for 
suspicion.  In  its  attitude  toward  Ger- 
many's wide-spread  spy  system,  it  proved 
itself,  indeed,  amazingly  naive.  The 
modern,  Republican  Frenchman  was  act- 
ually incapable  of  divining  the  systematic 
working  of  a  spy  system  sufficiently 
elaborate  and  sufficiently  ignoble  in 
spirit,  to  devise  sending  forth  its  ophidian 
mercenaries  to  crawl  into  the  bosom  of 
intimate  family  life,  to  eat  their  bread, 
and  then  betray  them. 

The  French  housewife  found  in  her 
German  maid,  nurse,  or  governess  of 


A  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  FRANCE       35 

her  children  those  docile,  industrious 
and  amiable  qualities  with  which,  one 
must  admit,  German  character  is  found 
to  be  endowed — when  it  is  deemed 
expedient  to  make  use  of  them — in 
a  foreign  country,  under  foreign 
pay. 

How  could  the  confiding  mistress 
divine  that  on  entering  her  service, 
the  German  servant  had  received  a  list 
of  directions  that  were,  in  reality,  com- 
mands from  the  German  headquarters 
of  her  Secret  Service?  Regular  reports 
were  to  be  made,  by  such  servants,  of 
any  conversations  likely  to  interest  the 
home  government;  details  appertaining 
to  the  income,  to  the  expenditures,  as 
well  as  to  the  family  and  social  status 
of  the  French  master  and  mistress  in 
whose  household  the  German  servant 
had  taken  service — all  such  useful  in- 


36  HEROIC  FRANCE 

formation  was  to  be  regularly  trans- 
mitted to  headquarters. 

Amplify  this  system  as  it  has  been 
worked  out  throughout  France,  with 
Germans  spying  into  the  naval,  military, 
official,  political,  urban  and  suburban 
life  of  a  people — a  system  that  even 
utilized  the  advertisements  of  its  soups 
and  foodstuffs  for  furnishing  future 
accurate  directions  to  an  invading  army 
of  every  road,  lane,  high-road  and  chateau 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
France — ought  not  a  people  capable 
of  organizing  such  a  comprehensive 
scheme  for  possessing  accurate  knowledge 
of  every  secret  of  a  neighbor  state,  feel 
confident  of  an  easy  baiting  of  an  enemy? 

The  Germans  have  proved  themselves 
to  be  possessed  of  certain  exceptionable 
qualities.  Intuitive  insight  into  the 
morale  of  another  people  or  race,  or  a 


A  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  FRANCE       37 

broad,  comprehensive  view  of  race  in- 
heritances, traditions  and  of  processes 
of  mental  and  spiritual  development 
differing  radically  from  their  own, — 
such  gifts  have  been  denied  the  Germans. 
Goethe  himself  summed  up  a  certain 
mental  density  in  his  own  people  when 
he  said  "the  Germans  take  things 
heavily." 

German  spies  have  infested  for  years 
the  intimate  and  official  life  of  all 
Europe  and  Great  Britain.  This  spy 
system  was  only  second,  in  point  of 
organization  and  control,  to  that  of 
the  army.  For  long  years  reports  re- 
lating to  every  grade  and  class  of  society 
and  officialdom,  of  her  foreign  neighbors, 
and  those  she  counted  as  enemies,  have 
been  pouring  into  the  German  head- 
quarters at  Berlin.  Yet  no  spy  was 
able  to  predict  what  would  be  France's 


38  HEROIC  FRANCE 

attitude  as  a  nation  when  she  was 
attacked.  No  German  could  divine  the 
true  spirit  of  the  Frenchman  when 
there  was  a  national  crisis  before  him 
to  face.  There  was  no  magic  baguette 
to  prove  how  deep  ran  the  national, 
patriotic  stream  of  passionate  devotion 
to  soil  and  country. 

German  baseness  judged  others  capable 
of  violating  treaties,  of  accepting  treach- 
erous offers — with  bribes — of  stooping 
to  infamous  alliance  against  weaker 
states,  by  its  own  standards.  What 
spy  in  England  could  gauge  the  stainless 
honor  of  Sir  Edward  Grey?  Where  was 
the  sound  reasoning  of  her  servants 
in  Belgium,  that  could  not  even  discern 
the  glimmerings  of  that  passionate  love 
of  national  independence  that  made  a 
German  invasion  of  her  soil  rouse  every 
Belgian  to  defend  it? 


A  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  FRANCE       39 

From  her  own  somewhat  naive  con- 
fessions adduced  from  the  Kaiser's 
pompous  speeches,  and  the  many  pre- 
dictions relating  to  the  dates  when 
certain  cities  were  to  be  captured,  as 
well  as  from  the  testimony  of  German 
prisoners,  Germany's  ignorance  relating 
to  France  and  her  military  preparedness 
is  astounding. 

It  was  universally  believed  in  Germany 
there  was  no  great  military  genius  to 
lead  French  valor,  should  her  soldiers 
still  be  found  to  possess  that  older  Gallic 
virtue.  There  was  not  even  a  Napoleon 
III.  to  rouse  the  national  pride  to 
suicidal  bravery.  And  in  point  of  equip- 
ment, the  army  was  reported  to  be  short 
of  uniforms,  of  shoes  even.  Her  stores 
of  ammunition  also  were  said  to  be 
ridiculously  low.  Crushing  such  an  army 
was  to  be  but  an  easy  "walkover." 


40  HEROIC  FRANCE 

On  the  5th  of  August,  therefore,  certain 
German  reservists  residing  in  France 
were  notified  to  join  their  regiment, 
not  on  German  soil,  but  at  Rheims. 
On  the  15th  of  the  same  month,  others 
were  to  assist  in  the  triumphal  entry 
of  the  German  army  into  Paris,  led 
by  the  Crown  Prince,  the  Kaiser's  won- 
derful son,  whom  God  was  to  support 
"magnificently"  in  certain  later  victories. 
France  was,  therefore,  considered  as 
crushed  before  a  gun  was  fired.  She 
was  thought  to  be  in  that  friable  state 
of  decomposition  that  Venice  was  found 
to  be  in  when  Austria  so  easily  sub- 
jugated her.  At  a  touch  of  Germany's 
mailed  fist  the  invertebrate  Republic 
would  crumble,  as  crumbles  painted 
cardboard  in  an  iron  grasp.  Germany, 
the  whole  nation,  indeed,  had  been 
systematically  trained  to  think  of  France 


A  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  FRANCE       41 

as  at  her  lowest  ebb,  at  the  mercy  of 
her  hereditary  instincts  and  inheritance. 
Degenerate,  decayed,  she  had  sunk  to 
the  lowest  forms  of  vice.  One  needed 
but  to  make  the  tour  of  Montmartre 
after  midnight  or  of  her  theatres,  to 
witness  exhibitions, — indecent,  obscene 
—such  as  Berlin,  in  her  somewhat 
grotesque  efforts  to  rival  Parisian  de- 
pravity, had  in  vain  attempted  to  imitate. 

Through  her  widespread  spy  system; 
through  the  reports  of  her  ambassadors, 
who  preferred  to  present  only  such  facts 
as  would  be  agreeable  to  the  autocratic 
mind  of  the  Kaiser,  Germany  believed 
she  was  also  in  complete  possession 
of  all  the  proofs  of  weakness, — inter- 
necine, political,  and  military — that 
placed  England  out  of  the  great  game. 

What  an  unhoped-for  series  of  internal 
disturbances  in  both  these  hated  coun- 


42  HEROIC  FRANCE 

tries!  How  wonderously  God,  the  only 
God,  the  God  of  William  II  and  of 
Prussian  destinies,  had  managed  to  com- 
plicate the  political  and  domestic  quarrels 
of  France  and  England!  Now  was  the 
long-awaited  time  to  strike  the  great 
blow  by  this  chosen  man  of  God, 
the  holier  descendant  of  Alexander,  of 
Caesar, — he  who  also  had  conquered 
Gaul, — and  of  Napoleon,  whose  chief 
military  want  of  foresight  was  proven 
to  have  been  his  humiliation  of  Prussia, 
since  from  those  bitter  ashes  had  sprung, 
Phoenix-like,  the  resurrection  of  the 
mighty  modern  German  Empire. 

Can  we  blame  the  Kaiser  for  believing 
the  finger  of  his  God  was  pointing 
to  the  neutral  frontier  of  Belgium  as 
the  open  door  to  France? 

Beyond  that  door,  France  was  sup- 
posed to  be  waiting  in  trembling,  in 


A  GERMAN  VIEW  OF  FRANCE       43 

an  agony  of  fear.  Her  hastily  mobilized 
army  might  be  galvanized  into  terror- 
stricken  heroics  by  hysterical  shouts  of 
"a  Berlin!  a  Berlin!"  To  Berlin,  un- 
doubtedly, thousands  of  those  abject, 
invertebrate  creatures  would  go — but 
as  prisoners  of  war. 

In  less  than  a  fortnight  the  perfection 
of  German  training  of  the  superb  army 
led  by  the  great  "delight  of  the  world" 
— her  genius  of  an  Emperor — would  be 
proving  to  France  what  conquering  power 
lay  in  a  people,  united,  confident  of 
possessing — "an  excess  of  vigor,  enter- 
prise, idealism  and  spiritual  energy, 
which  qualifies  it  for  the  highest  places, 
for  governing  the  whole  world,  in  a 
word." 

Berlin  would  presently  transform  Paris 
into  a  highly  moral  play-ground  for 
highly  "cultured"  Germans.  Once  this 


44  HEROIC  FRANCE 

culture,  "made  in  Germany,"  had  time 
to  work  its  spiritualizing  methods, 
vicious,  decadent  France,  after  having 
been  brought  to  its  knees,  would  rise 
up  a  wiser,  sadder  people.  In  the  new 
character  of  a  reformed  rake,  her  sal- 
vation would  be  hastened  by  the  uplift 
of  the  new  German  "religion," — a  reli- 
gion which  is  based  on  the  oldest  of  all 
forms  of  despotism — that  of  systematic 
oppression. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Assassination  of  Jaurbs 

AS  THOUGH  the  fates  were  in  con- 
spiracy   to    twist    the    threads    of 
France's  fortunes  into  still  further 
hopeless   entanglement,   a   second   crime 
was  committed    in    Paris   whose    conse- 
quences might  have  proved  to  be  of  the 
gravest  possible  results  to  national  French 
unity. 

A  pistol  shot  rang  out  on  the  night  of 
July  31st,  across  a  cafe  table,  in  Mont- 
martre. 

Monsieur  Jaures,  the  greatest  of  French 
Socialists   and  perhaps  the  most  gifted 
45 


46  HEROIC  FRANCE 

French  orator  since  Gambetta,  was  seated 
in  a  corner  of  a  cafe,  the  centre  of  a  com- 
pany of  friends.  Two  French  deputies, 
Messieurs  Longuet  and  Renaudel,  the 
administrators  of  "L'Humanite"-  -  the 
famous  Socialist  paper — and  Herr  George 
Weill,  the  Socialist  Deputy  of  the  Reich- 
stag, were  quietly  discussing  the  stirring 
events  of  the  day.  The  curtain  screening 
the  window  close  to  which  Jaures  was 
seated  was  torn  away  from  the  outside. 
Two  shots  were  fired  point  blank  at  the 
Socialist  leader  and  Monsieur  Jaures  fell, 
unconscious,  across  the  table  on  which  a 
second  before  he  had  been  leaning.  His 
dead  body  a  few  minutes  later  was  taken 
away  by  his  friends. 

The  power  exercised  by  Jaures  over  the 
great  body  of  French  Socialists  and  Radi- 
cal-Socialists was  due  to  a  combination 
of  gifts  and  qualities  such  as  an  advocate 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  JAURES    47 

of  ideas  and  principles  destined  to  revolu- 
tionize society  must  possess  to  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  leader  of  men.  Jaures ' 
career  marked  him  from  his  first  ap- 
pearance as  a  young  man,  teaching  phil- 
osophy as  early  as  1883  at  Albi — he  was 
born  at  Castres,  in  the  southern  province 
of  Taru,  in  1859 — as  a  man  with  an  as- 
sured future.  His  election  as  deputy  for 
his  province  in  1885  gave  him  his  first 
chance  to  prove  his  powers  as  an  orator. 
At  this  period  of  his  intellectual  develop- 
ment, his  opinions  both  on  social  and 
political  matters  were  still  in  that  some- 
what nebulous  state  peculiar  to  processes 
of  mental  transition.  Eight  years  were 
to  pass  before  Jaures  was  to  come  to  com- 
plete understanding  of  his  own  fluctuating 
convictions,  reflections  and  philosophic 
conclusions.  Elected  by  the  miners  of 
Taru  whose  cause  he  had  espoused  dur- 


48  HEROIC  FRANCE 

ing  the  famous  Carmaux  strikes,  he  pro- 
claimed to  the  spell-bound  Chamber  of 
Deputies  in  1893,  through  the  power 
wielded  by  a  born  leader  of  revolutionary 
ideas  and  by  an  orator  possessed  of 
trained  faculties  and  gifts  of  the  highest 
order — his  political  attitude.  His  radical- 
ism all  but  touched  the  ground  held  by 
Anarchists.  As  a  man,  Jaures'  deep- 
seated  sincerity  of  character  could  not  be 
doubted  even  by  his  enemies. 

Since  his  entrance  into  political  life, 
Jaures  unquestionably  held  the  one 
stable,  secure  seat  in  that  French  Cham- 
ber too  famous  for  sudden  eclipse  of 
power.  Every  Minister  on  entering  into 
office  knew  he  must  reckon  with  Jaures. 
And  behind  the  great  leader  there  was  the 
formidable,  ever-growing  army  of  the 
Socialists  and  the  Radical-Socialists  who, 
however  much  they  might  be  divided  by 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  JAURES    49 

family  quarrels,  in  moments  of  attack 
were  united  to  a  man  behind  the  man 
who  led  them  from  victory  to  victory. 

Jaures '  eloquence  has  been  likened  to 
that  of  Gambetta. 

The  same  richly  colored,  vibrant,  son- 
orous phrases  poured  forth  with  southern 
impetuosity  and  fecundity,  felicitous  im- 
agery, and  scholarly,  classical  allusion 
characterized  the  speeches  of  both  these 
gifted  sons  of  the  Midi.  Judged  from 
the  point  of  view  of  pure  eloquence, 
Jaures  was  easily  the  most  gifted  orator 
France  has  produced  since  Gambetta. 
He  could  be  answered;  but  his  opponents 
found  no  weapons  of  defense  or  attack  to 
equal  that  matchless  gift  that  is  the  heri- 
tage of  the  great  speaker. 

In  the  killing  of  Jaures,  the  assassin's 
crime  had  for  its  echo  the  startled  cry  of 
the  civilized  world.  The  ring  of  the 


50  HEROIC  FRANCE 

murderer's  bullet  must  have  sounded  as 
the  last  convincing  note  to  assure  Ger- 
many of  France's  complete  demoraliza- 
tion. French  Socialists,  it  was  speciously 
argued,  in  their  righteous  anger  at  the 
committing  of  as  heinous  a  crime,  could 
now  no  longer  be  counted  upon;  to  a 
man,  they  would  refuse  to  obey  their 
government's  call  to  arms. 

Jaures'  power,  even  after  his  death, 
was  proved  by  the  devotion  of  his  follow- 
ers to  their  lost  leader. 

The  very  night  before  the  brutal  assas- 
sination of  Jaures,  the  French  President 
had  requested  his  presence  at  a  meeting 
of  some  of  the  members  of  the  Council. 
Jaures  was  then  informed,  some  days  be- 
fore the  country  was  to  know  the  worst, 
of  what  was  surely  to  happen;  of  how  poor 
a  chance  the  negotiations  going  on  in 
London  promised  for  maintaining  the 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  JAURES   51 

peace  of  Europe;  of  how  tremendous 
would  be  the  odds  against  France,  in  case 
of  war,  were  she  to  be  unsupported  by 
England;  and  of  what  fate  awaited  the 
country  were  she  not  to  present  an  un- 
divided front,  to  the  dread  enemy. 

"Every  one  of  you  Socialists  must  be 
with  us,"  rang  in  Jaures'  ears. 

Every  Socialist,  the  great  orator,  the 
master-mind  of  his  party  instantly 
decreed,  should  fly  to  the  colors.  The 
awful  prospect  of  France  Prussianized,  of 
a  possible  German  Dictatorship  was  a 
spectre  sufficiently  terrifying  to  chill  the 
blood  of  the  man  who,  more  than  any 
other  had  preached  Internationalism; 
who,  more  than  any  other  had  opposed 
the  Three  Years'  Army  Bill;  who,  more 
than  any  other  had  used  his  all  but 
Demosthenian  eloquence  to  stain  the  Lily 
of  France  with  the  blood  of  mistaken 


52  HEROIC  FRANCE 

martyrdom.  But  once  the  great  test 
applied,  deep  in  the  soul  of  every 
Frenchman  there  will  be  found  the  root 
of  the  patriot. 

That  very  night  Jaures  wrote  his  great- 
est article.  In  calling  on  his  thousands 
of  followers  to  rally  to  the  flag,  to  answer 
to  the  bugle  call  of  patriotism,  he  proved 
himself  worthy  to  be  ranked  with  heroes. 
He  flung  down  the  incendiary  torch  of  the 
destroyer  to  unsheath  the  Periclean 
sword  of  the  patriot. 

Socialists,  Anarchists  even,  responded 
to  a  man  to  their  great  leader's  impas- 
sioned appeal. 

The  blow  to  Socialistic  hopes  that  has 
been  thus  struck  by  French,  and  later  by 
German,  Russian  and  English  Socialists, 
is  a  cruel  one;  the  whole  movement  indeed 
it  is  openly  acknowledged  by  Interna- 
tionalists, has  been  hard  hit.  Social- 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  JAURES   53 

ists,  in  all  the  armies,  are  fighting  each 
other  like  Nationalists. 

"In  France  the  movement  collapsed 
utterly,  though  only  two  weeks  before 
the  war  the  French  Socialist  party  voted 
to  recommend  to  an  international  con- 
gress to  be  held  in  Vienna,  an  inter- 
national general  strike,  in  case  of  war. 
But  war  was  declared  too  soon,  and 
nothing  came  of  the  movement;  Jules 
Guesde  entered  the  cabinet  together  with 
Millerand  to  save  the  Republic  and  to 
fight  against  the  traitor  workmen  of  Ger- 
many," was  a  resume  of  the  situation,  in 
a  socialist  newspaper. 

The  pregnant  fact  that  behind  the 
Socialist  there  lies  the  man — the  elemen- 
tal, primitive  human  being — has  been  for- 
gotten by  the  Socialist  Leaders.  When 
one's  wife,  children,  home,  and  the  fruits 
of  one's  labor  and  toil  stand  in  danger  of 


54  HEROIC  FRANCE 

being  attacked,  mutilated,  looted  and 
confiscated,  a  Socialist  returns  to  his 
primal  instincts.  Peace  doctrines  are  for 
peace  times. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  Week  of  Dread 

UNLESS   one  had  lived  in  France 
during  the   eight   days    of   dread 
and   suspense    before    the    actual 
declaration  of  war,  it  would  be  difficult 
to   conceive   of   the   tension   among   all 
classes  of  Frenchmen. 

Europe  and  Great  Britain  had  been 
roused  already  to  the  fever  point  of 
excitement  by  the  ultimatum  addressed 
by  Austria-Hungary  to  Servia.  Its  mean- 
ing could  not  be  misunderstood.  Its 
all  but  insulting  demands  meant  war. 
Yet  hope  rose  high  with  every  varying 
phase  of  the  peace  negotiations. 
55 


56  HEROIC  FRANCE 

Hope  leaped  high,  indeed,  when  the 
announcement  was  made  that  Austria 
appeared  to  listen,  with  an  appearance 
of  yielding,  to  Russia's  proposals;  not 
fear,  but  an  enlightened  dread  of  the 
awful  consequences  haunted  the  soul  of 
every  Frenchman  when  Servia's  answer 
—remarkable  alike  for  its  temperance, 
its  dignity  and  its  acquiescent  spirit — to 
Austria's  all  but  insulting  ultimatum  was 
replied  to  by  Austria's  declaration  of  war. 

On  every  highroad,  at  every  village 
cafe,  at  every  dinner  or  luncheon,  in 
villa  or  chateau  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  France,  passionate  were 
the  lengthy  discussions,  interrupted  were 
all  forms  of  pleasure  or  even  of  continuous 
labor.  The  very  air  was  vibrant  with 
intensified  feeling. 

In  my  garden  in  Normandy  during 
this  long,  anxious  week,  very  little  work 


THE  WEEK  OF  DREAD  57 

was  done.  The  gardeners  rested  on  their 
rakes  or  spades  to  make  prolonged  dis- 
cussion of  the  situation  the  easier;  and 
their  shears,  I  noticed,  were  chiefly  used 
for  effective,  illustrative  gesture.  The 
chauffeur  still  burnished  the  brasses  of 
his  car,  but  more  vigorous  than  his  elbow 
work  were  the  explosive  prophesies  of 
the  punishment  to  be  given  the  first 
German  who  offered  his  "gueule"  for  a 
target.  The  farmers  busily  cutting  their 
grain  went  to  the  fields  with  the  morning 
papers  in  their  corduroy  trousers'  pocket. 
The  genius  of  the  French  for  clear 
insight;  the  talent  everywhere  displayed 
throughout  all  classes  in  France  for 
clever  handling  of  political  situations, 
and  the  remarkable  grasp  of  an  intelli- 
gent understanding  of  broad  national 
issues  were  never  more  conspicuously 
proven,  and  by  all  classes  of  French- 


58  HEROIC  FRANCE 

men,  than  during  that  long  week  of 
suspense. 

The  comparative  strength  of  the  armies 
of  Europe  was  guessed  with  astonishing 
accuracy;  the  power  of  the  various 
fleets  was  gauged;  the  destructive  char- 
acter of  German  and  French  arms  was 
weighed;  but  above  all  else,  the  question 
that  hung  aloft  in  the  mid-air  of  misty 
conjecture  was  one  fraught  with  nebulous 
doubt. 

Would  England  fight? 

That  Russia  would  rush  to  the  defense 
of  her  Slav  interests  and  her  Slav  brethren 
was  taken  for  granted.  But  England? 

Her  attitude  was  viewed  with  grave 
distrust. 

Whatever  sense  of  security  may  have 
been  felt  by  the  heads  of  the  French 
government,  the  French  people  to  a 
man  were  skeptical  of  England's  be- 


THE  WEEK  OF  DREAD  59 

lieving  her  best  interests  lay  with  France. 
The  usual  stock  phrases  were  mouthed; 
"Perfide  Albion;"  "We'll  be  crushed, 
pulling  her  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire." 
"Her  King,  when  he  was  here,  even  he, 
when  the  President  pressed  him  for  a 
decisive  answer  to  assert  the  closer 
knitting  of  the  Entente  Cordiale,  could 
only  reply,  for  mere  courtesy's  sake,  in 
evasive  phrases." 

France  thus  voiced  her  distrust  of  her 
neighbor  across  the  Channel.  There  was 
a  chill  and  a  shudder  that  passed  from 
one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other; 
for  were  France  to  support,  unaided, 
the  full  shock  of  the  German  armies, 
what  might  not  be  her  fate? 

When,  on  August  12th,  through  the 
pearly  mists  of  early  morning,  those  of 
us  who  could  look  out  upon  the  gradually 
lighted  dawn  shining  on  the  Havre 


60  HEROIC  FRANCE 

seas  to  catch  the  first  glimpse  of  the 
English  transports  slowly  making  their 
way  to  harbor,  what  a  thrill  shot  through 
the  soul  of  every  on-looker!  The  Calva- 
dos shores  rang  with  welcoming  shouts. 
The  whole  Norman  coast  was  alive  with 
breathless,  excited  multitudes. 

The  vessels  had  crept  up  with  the  sil- 
ence and  secrecy  rather  of  foes  than  as  the 
forerunners  of  the  mighty  English  army 
that  was  to  help  France  hold  her  own. 

Never  was  an  ally  more  warmly  met. 
Never  were  soldiers  of  two  races  so 
dissimilar,  in  traits  and  temperament, 
to  fraternize  as  quickly.  "Mon  petit 
comrade"  was  the  customary  affectionate 
greeting  of  a  diminutive  French  "piou- 
piou,"  to  an  English  Tommy  nearly 
twice  his  size,  as,  linked  arm  in  arm,  the 
two  would  wend  their  way  to  cafe  or 
to  barracks. 


THE  WEEK  OF  DREAD  61 

The  real  secret  of  this  first  landing  of 
English  troops  was  an  open  one  to 
Havre,  to  Normandy  and  to  Paris,  many 
days  before  the  loyal  English  Press — 
pledged  to  guard  the  starting  forth  of 
the  army — announced  it  to  the  English 
nation. 

The  continuous  coming  of  the  English 
ships,  thus  unannounced,  gave  our 
modern  Normandy  world  the  startled 
surprise  that  must  have  been  experienced 
by  mediaeval  or  Renaissance  peoples  in 
the  sudden  appearance  of  succoring  friend 
or  war-like  foe. 

In  the  case  of  this  English  ally,  surprise 
was  only  exceeded  by  the  quick  joy,  by 
the  sense  of  an  almost  nameless  gratitude 
in  finding  England  living  up  to  her  best 
conceptions  of  high  duty.  Historians 
even  now  are  darkening  that  bright 
picture  by  insisting  England's  fighting 


62  HEROIC  FRANCE 

Germany  on  the  rather  thin  plea  of 
thus  honoring  her  signature  to  a  scrap 
of  paper,  is  but  a  screen  to  veil  her  own 
more  ambitious  and  destructive  designs. 

Whatever  revelations  future  historical 
records  may  have  in  store  for  us,  the 
coming  of  the  English  troops  to  Havre, 
and  later  on  to  Ostend  and  to  Boulogne, 
gave  France  her  first  profound  thrill 
of  cheer.  She  was  not  alone !  England 
and  Belgium  would,  united  with  her 
own  armies,  assure  ultimate  victory. 
Her  Russian  ally  would  hold  the  German 
hordes  in  the  East. 

France  was  under  no  illusions  as  to 
what  was  to  come  to  her  were  she  to 
be  unsuccessful  in  her  attempt  to  guard 
her  own  soil,  and  to  protect  her  liberties 
unaided.  As  Alfred  Capus  so  strikingly 
asserted  in  a  leading  article  in  the 
Figaro:  "We  had  all  seen,  at  one  and 


THE  WEEK  OF  DREAD  63 

the  same  time — with  a  blinding  clarity 
had  we  seen — that  with  the  formidable 
German  horde  descending  upon  us  we 
must  expect  a  return  to  barbarism.  It 
is  a  barbarism  which  is  waiting  to 
reconquer  and  to  throttle  Europe,  as 
the  first  invasions  from  the  East  de- 
scended upon  the  Roman  world." 

Even  before  Germany's  policy  of 
terrorism  and  her  long  prepared,  am- 
bitious project  for  world  conquest  had 
been  as  fully  revealed  to  the  nations 
as  they  have  been  within  the  past  five 
months,  the  clear-sighted,  analytic 
French  mind  had  grasped  the  inner 
meaning  and  menace  of  the  German 
invasion. 

It  is  one  of  the  defective  policies  in  a 
Republican  form  of  government  that 
the  heads  of  the  State  cannot  always 
act  on  knowledge  gained  through  diplo- 


64  HEROIC  FRANCE 

matic  sources.  That  the  French 
government  had  been  warned,  since  or 
even  before  1912,  of  Germany's  war- 
like preparations  and  of  her  firm 
intention  to  invade  France  were  she 
pushed  by  Russia's  equally  warlike 
preparations  to  break  the  long  peace,  is 
more  or  less  an  open  secret.  The  only 
effective  action  that  could  be  taken 
by  France  partially  to  prepare  herself 
for  Germany's  dreaded  attack,  was  to 
vote  the  Three  Years'  Army  Bill.  With 
her  usual  talent  for  distorting  facts, 
Germany  announced  in  the  Reichstag, 
in  1913,  when  her  Chancellor  demanded 
an  increase  of  both  her  war  fund  and 
her  army,  that  France's  threatening 
act  in  making  the  Three  Years'  Com- 
pulsory service  a  law  made  this  demand 
imperative.  Germany  seems  to  ignore 
the  teaching  of  one  of  the  oldest  of  all 


THE  WEEK  OF  DREAD  65 

maxims — one  that  Lincoln  phrased  in 
his  famous  dictum  that  "You  can  fool 
all  of  the  people  some  of  the  time, 
but  you  can't  fool  all  the  people  all  the 
time."  In  our  day  truth  is  the  wisest 
of  all  policies,  since  through  the  press, 
the  cable,  the  telegraph,  the  rapidity 
of  swift  displacement,  and  the  publishing 
of  the  motley  colored  Yellow,  Grey, 
Blue  and  White  Books,  the  world  may 
be  immediately  informed  of  facts  that 
in  former  years  patient  historians  de- 
voted their  lives  to  unearthing. 

There  are  those — and  they  are  many 
in  America — who  still  contend  France 
went  into  this  war  primarily  because 
of  her  alliance  with  Russia.  The  terms 
of  her  treaty  with  her  powerful  ally 
exacted,  it  is  true,  the  support  of  France 
in  case  of  Russia  going  into  a  war.  But 
the  people  of  France — her  fighting  pop- 


66  HEROIC  FRANCE 

ulation,  her  armies,  in  a  word,  felt  and 
knew  it  to  be  her  own  war  with  Germany. 
France  wanted  war  neither  with  Ger- 
many nor  with  any  other  nation.  The 
long  years  of  peace  within  her  own 
territory  had  developed  the  delights 
and  contentment  peace  breeds.  The 
memories  even  of  her  humiliating  defeat 
in  1870  had  been  softened  by  her 
subsequent  victories  in  the  field  of 
diplomacy,  by  the  increase  of  her  com- 
merce, by  her  industrial  prosperity,  and 
by  her  financial  importance.  The  longing 
to  recapture  her  lost  provinces — Alsace 
and  Lorraine — was  rather  a  desire  colored 
by  sentiment  than  one  vibrating  to 
the  touch  of  revenge.  The  younger 
generation  that  had  grown  up  to  man- 
hood since  Napoleon  Ill's  downfall 
could  be  roused  to  instantaneous  en- 
thusiasm, it  is  true,  at  the  call  of  patriotic 


THE  WEEK  OF  DREAD  67 

allusions  to  a  possible  recovery  of  the 
captured  provinces;  but  this  new  France 
would  have  had  to  feel  itself  numerically 
twice  or  thrice  as  strong  before  a  govern- 
ment could  successfully  be  supported 
in  any  attempt  to  make  war  on  Germany 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  re-taking  Alsace 
and  Lorraine. 

That  France  as  a  whole  nation  fronted 
the  possibility  of  war  with  dismay  bord- 
ering on  dread  was  sufficiently  proved 
by  her  attitude  during  the  tragic  days 
when  the  so-called  Peace  negotiations 
were  going  on  in  London.  At  every 
turn  of  the  diplomatic  game  France 
was  alternately  swayed  by  the  fluctuating 
tides  of  hope  and  fear. 

These  waves  of  passion-strung  feeling 
had  been  intensified  by  the  recent  politi- 
cal, religious  and  socialistic  crises  through 
which  the  country  had  passed.  The 


68  HEROIC  FRANCE 

Caillaux  trial;  the  absence  of  the  head 
of  the  French  government,  during  this 
period  of  stress  and  strain;  and  the 
assassination  of  Jaures — the  great  So- 
cialist Leader — had  kept  all  France  in 
a  state  of  nervous  and  excited  tension 
for  a  long  fortnight  before  she  was 
called  upon  to  face  one  of  the  gravest 
situations  in  her  historical  experience. 

With  Jaures  assassinated,  indeed,  a 
conjunction  of  the  planetary  forces  was 
felt,  doubtless,  to  be  in  direct  collusion 
with  Germany's  plans  for  the  coming 
war  that  was  "to  be  fought  for  the 
highest  interests  of  our  (her)  country  and 
of  mankind." 

As  yet  neither  France  nor,  indeed,  had 
Europe  become  familiarized  with  these 
benevolent  designs  of  a  God-directed 
Emperor. 


CHAPTER  VII 

France — The  Living  Sword 

IN  one  of  the  most  eloquent  calls  to 
arms  ever  made  by  a  chief  of  state  to 
a    nation,    President    Poincare    thus 
addressed  France,  on  Sunday,  August  2d: 
"In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  diplomacy, 
the   situation   in  Europe    within    a    few 
days  has  been  aggravated. 

"The  horizon  has  darkened.  At  the 
present  moment  most  of  the  nations  have 
mobilized  their  armies;  even  countries 
protected  by  neutrality  have  deemed  it 
necessary  to  resort  to  this  act  as  a  pre- 
cautionary measure." 
69 


70  HEROIC  FRANCE 

The  message  went  on  to  state  that 
"one  of  the  powers"  had  already  mobil- 
ized, without  issuing  a  decree  of  mobiliza- 
tion; that  France  who  had  always  reiter- 
ated her  desire  for  peace,  who  had  during 
these  tragic  days  given  Europe  counsels 
in  moderation  and  a  living  example  of 
wisdom,  who  had  multiplied  her  efforts  to 
maintain  the  peace  of  the  world,  now  saw 
herself  forced  to  take  preliminary  meas- 
ures to  safeguard  her  territory. 

After  stating  "that  mobilization  is  not 
war"  the  President  ended  by  saying  that 
"I  count  on  the  sang-froid  of  this 
noble  nation  not  to  allow  itself  to  be  ex- 
cited by  an  unjustifiable  emotion.  I 
count  on  the  patriotism  of  all  French- 
men, and  know  that  there  is  not  one  who 
is  not  ready  to  do  his  duty. 

"At  this  hour,  there  are  no  parties, 
there  is  a  France — a  France  peace- 


FRANCE— THE  LIVING  SWORD       71 

loving  and  resolute.  There  is  a  coun- 
try of  right,  of  justice,  proving  its 
united  spirit  of  calm,  vigilance  and 
dignity." 

This  declaration  was  signed  by  all 
the  Ministers  as  well  as  by  the  Presi- 
dent. 

All  the  world  knows  the  response  of 
France  to  that  appeal. 

On  the  walls  of  every  city  in  France,  in 
every  village,  in  every  hamlet,  the  order 
of  mobilization  was  posted.  Every- 
where, throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  country,  the  same  scenes  were  en- 
acted. Groups  of  men  gathered  thick 
about  the  posters,  read  their  orders,  and 
after  interchanging  remarks  with  the 
nearest  neighbor,  they  would  turn  away 
silently  with  serious  faces  but  with  eyes 
aflame  to  carry  the  news  to  their  fami- 
lies. 


72  HEROIC  FRANCE 

In  my  parish  of  Vasouy  the  scene 
I  witnessed  only  a  few  moments  after 
the  order  was  posted  was  a  typical 
one. 

The  diminutive  Mairie  of  our  parish  of 
two  hundred  souls  is  perched  on  a  rise  of 
ground  overlooking  the  sea.  Adjoining 
the  Mairie  there  stands  a  huge  stone 
cross  on  its  base  of  worn  steps. 

About  the  railing  of  the  Mairie,  the  men 
and  women  from  the  adjacent  farms  were 
thickly  grouped.  Children  clung  to  their 
mother's  skirts.  Some  of  the  fathers  had 
the  babe  of  the  year  sitting  cross-wise  on 
their  shoulders;  it  was  Sunday,  and  this 
call  to  arms  had  surprised  many  on  their 
customary  saunter  along  the  Normandy 
highroad. 

"Ca  y'est !" 

This  was  cried,  almost  in  chorus,  as 
the  men  looked — and  stared. 


FRANCE— THE  LIVING  SWORD       73 

There  was  a  moment's  silence,  and  then 
a  nervous  laugh  broke  the  stillness.  A 
man  near  me — a  farmer  whose  wife  and 
child  were  beside  me,  called  out  through 
his  hoarse  laughter,  "Eh  bien! — la  grosse! 
I  go  to  protect  thee — it  seems!"  And  he 
put  his  arm  about  the  wife,  whose  eyes 
were  filled  with  tears,  but  whose  lips 
smiled — the  brave  smile! 

"Yes,  that's  it!  We  must  fight  for 
our  children — for  the  country!  What's 
your  regiment?  What  arms  do  you 
use?" 

Every  man  forgot  his  momentary  stag- 
ger of  mingled  surprise  and  consternation 
in  eager  discussion  of  his  military  rank 
and  destination.  There  were  hurried 
handclasps,  a  few  Hurrahs!  many  cheer- 
ful "A  bientot"— "A  demains"  and  the 
groups  separated,  crying  "Vive  la 
France!" 


74  HEROIC  FRANCE 

The  women  were  as  brave  as  calm. 
Only  one  or  two  showed  traces  of  emo- 
tion. And  one  of  them  had  cause  for 
tears.  "Thou'll  never  see  the  babe — 
Jules,"  a  farmer's  wife  said,  as  she  put 
her  browned  hand  in  her  husband's. 

"Nonsense.  I'll  be  bringing  thee  Ber- 
lin wools  for  a  jacket  in  a  month  or  two," 
was  the  gayly -voiced  answer. 

Hour  by  hour  that  tide  of  courageous 
bravery  rose  higher  and  higher.  It  car- 
ried the  men  through  the  short  twenty- 
four  hours'  preparation  for  an  indefinite 
departure;  it  lifted  the  spirit  of  the  man 
who  must  leave  wife  and  children  to  an 
uncertain  fate,  to  smile  as  he  strained 
them  in  farewell;  it  drowned  out  all  per- 
sonal interest;  it  swept  all  France  into  an 
exaltation  of  patriotic  enthusiasm.  It 
surprised  even  the  most  discerning  of 
Frenchmen  to  discover  such  rare,  such 


FRANCE— THE  LIVING  SWORD       75 

superb  moral  and  spiritual  qualities  in 
their  people.  That  a  people  so  quick  to 
feel,  so  intensely  emotional,  so  danger- 
ously excitable  should  be  capable  of 
such  sane  common  sense,  of  conforming 
immediately  to  strict  discipline,  of  be- 
ing possessed — as  by  magic — of  a  unified 
will,  animated  by  a  single  and  clearly 
understood  purpose — this  revelation  of 
the  France  that  had  been  developed  dur- 
ing the  forty  years  peace  was  as  great  a 
surprise  to  thinking  Frenchmen  as  it  was 
to  be  to  the  outer  world. 

The  trains  carrying  the  men  to  their 
destination  were  garlanded  with  flowers; 
the  scenes  of  farewell  at  the  stations, 
heartrending  though  some  were,  were 
amazingly  unemotional  as  a  whole  in 
outward  expression.  Women  smiled  into 
the  smiling  faces  of  lover  or  husband; 
fathers  lifted  children  in  their  arms  as 


76  HEROIC  FRANCE 

though  at  play;  even  bent  old  peasant 
women,  as  they  clasped  son  or  grandson, 
in  farewell,  turned  the  tragedy  into  a  joke. 

The  mocking  French  spirit  that  so  often 
hides  deep  feeling  was  indeed  not  wanting 
from  certain  scenes. 

A  fine  looking  man,  the  clever  Honfleur 
plumber,  looking  every  inch  the  hero  in 
his  cuirassier's  uniform,  came  along  the 
Honfleur  platform  to  entrain,  his  wife 
hanging  to  his  arm.  "Mon  homme! 
mon  homme! — thou  goest  from  me!"  the 
latter  was  wailing,  between  her  bursting 
sobs.  "Her  man"  looked  on  the  bowed 
head,  his  indulgent  smile  half  loving, 
half  malicious.  "Hum,  it  appears  love 
is  in  the  air — in  the  war-times.  Thou 
were'nt  as  loving  as  all  that  yesterday 
morning  when  we  had  our  quarrel!" 
But  he  strained  her  to  his  heart  the 
moment  after,  before  entering  his  car. 


FRANCE— THE  LIVING  SWORD       77 

One  might  have  thought  the  intermin- 
able line  of  cars  rather  decked  for  a  gigan- 
tic wedding  festivity  than  carrying  sol- 
diers off  to  battle. 

Flowers  were  everywhere;  diminutive 
squat  bouquets  flourished  from  the  men's 
breasts  and  caps;  branches  of  trees  were 
tied  to  door  handles;  marigolds  and 
phlox  adorned  the  fillets  into  which  provi- 
dent wives  and  mothers  had  crammed 
cigarettes  and  socks,  bread  and  a 
change  of  underclothes — and  also  those 
unlovely  but  solacing  bits  of  flannels 
— those  merciful  protectors  of  little 
Mary. 

The  patriotic  ardor  that  inspired  the 
Japanese  women  during  their  heroic 
struggle  with  Russia  to  glory  rather  in 
the  death  of  their  beloved  than  to  con- 
template their  coming  back  defeated, 
thrills  the  heart  of  every  French  mother, 


78  HEROIC  FRANCE 

of  every  wife  who  has  seen  son  or  husband 
sing  his  way  to  battle. 

"My  wife  wrote  me,  come  home  crip- 
pled, be  brought  back  dead,  but  come 
home  victorious"  was  quoted  me,  as 
the  oft-repeated  appeal  of  a  Japanese 
wife  to  her  husband,  a  hero  of  Port 
Arthur. 

This  Spartan  courage  was  matched  by 
the  spirited  outburst  of  a  certain  countess 
who  stood  beside  me  on  the  platform  of 
the  Honfleur  station.  We  were  watch- 
ing the  long  train  slowly  winding  its  way, 
bearing  the  first  soldiers  entrained  in  our 
region  of  Calvados.  The  lady's  two  sons 
were  bending  half  out  of  the  car  window, 
striving  to  catch  the  last  glimpse  of  the 
upright  figure  beside  me.  My  friend's 
cheeks  were  white  with  grief  and  the  in- 
ward dread  she  would  not  voice.  But 
her  lips  and  voice  were  firm. 


FRANCE— TEE  LIVING  SWORD       79 

"If  only  they  come  back  victorious,"  she 
said,  and  she  turned  to  put  her  arm  about 
the  bowed  form  of  a  peasant  woman,  who 
was  furtively  wiping  the  tears  coursing 
down  the  bronzed  cheeks.  "Allons,  la 
mere — we  must  save  our  tears  for  the  day 
when  crying  will  be  our  only  comfort." 

She  walked  the  old  woman  off  to  her 
char-a-banc,  knowing  action  is  grief's 
best  anodyne. 

Before  the  train  had  left  the  station, 
some  of  the  soldiers  had  burst  into 
snatches  of  song.  One  by  one,  the  men 
took  up  the  familiar  notes.  That  stirring 
call  "Allons,  enfants  de  la  Patrie"  soon 
swung  into  air,  a  thunderous  shout.  Tri- 
umphant, exultant — for  are  not  the  chil- 
dren of  France  at  last  marching  to  their 
long-awaited  revenge  for  Sedan?  that 
swelling  chorus  has  been  ringing  up  to 
French  skies  for  long  months:  from  Mar- 


80  HEROIC  FRANCE 

seilles  to  Calais,  from  the  French  Vosges 
to  the  rock-bound  coast  of  Brittany,  as 
on  one  memorable  day  Paris  heard  it,  a 
continuous  song  from  the  Bastile  to  the 
Arc  de  Triumphe.  That  melodious  mili- 
tant music  has  swept  the  sensitive, 
emotional  harp  of  French  feeling,  striking 
the  mighty  patriotic  chord  that  has  made 
all  France  one. 

This  spirit  of  meeting  a  grave  crisis 
with  confident  gayety,  has  not  deserted 
the  French  soldier  at  the  front.  His 
raillery,  his  talent  for  seeing  the  humor- 
ous side  of  a  situation,  his  quick  wit  is  the 
leaven  that  makes  light  of  even  the  hor- 
rors of  life  in  the  trenches. 

The  women  left  at  home  have  shown 
since  the  war  began  a  Lacedemonian 
courage.  They  have  stepped  into  the 
vacant  places  as  though  born  to  the  task 
of  the  running  of  a  farm  alone,  unaided, 


FRANCE— THE  LIVING  SWORD       81 

or  of  a  hotel,  or  the  direction  of  the  family 
fortunes.  No  task  seems  to  be  beyond 
their  capacity  or  power  of  adaptation. 
Every  woman  in  France  is  now  working. 
She  turns  her  hand  to  whatever  duty  or 
task  lies  before  her. 

When  the  horses,  carts  and  vehicles  of 
all  sorts  were  requisitioned,  along  the 
country  roads  women  old  and  young, 
girls  even,  led  many  of  the  horses  from 
the  farm  or  the  spirited  teams  from  their 
master's  stables  to  the  judging  posts. 
One  might  have  thought  one's  self  at 
Longchamps,  or  in  the  paddock  of  the 
Deauville  race-course.  All  was  as  order- 
ly, as  composed,  as  though  every  valuable 
horse  had  his  master  or  coachman  as 
showman. 

The  Frenchwoman  among  the  working 
classes  is  trained  for  service  of  some  sort. 
To  take  the  command  of  a  household,  of 


82  HEROIC  FRANCE 

a  business  even,  is  only  in  many  instances 
a  case  of  promotion.  The  dot  system  in 
France  has  given  women  equal  interests 
in  the  management  of  the  family  fortune. 
She  steps  as  easily  into  the  place  of  power 
as  she  understands  how  not  to  appear  to 
usurp  it.  The  Frenchwoman  of  the  low- 
er middle  and  peasant  or  working-wom- 
en's class  I  believe  to  be  the  most  com- 
pletely equipped  woman  in  our  modern 
society. 

It  is  she  who  will  silently,  prudently, 
untiringly  repair  by  her  industry  and 
thrift  the  disastrous  devastation  caused 
by  the  war. 

The  magnificent  courage  she  is  now 
showing  proves    her  training — and    her 
piety.     The  Frenchwoman  is  the  scab- 
bard of  what  Michelet  called  France— 
"The  living  sword." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Pan's  When  the  Germans  were  at  Compiegne 

AT   certain   crises   in   the   life   of    a 
nation,    the   slow   deposit   of    the 
years  necessary  to  forge  new  forces 
in  character  proves  the  results  attained. 
The  spirit  animating  modern  Frenchmen; 
the  gain  in  self-control;    the  power  of 
acting  with  an  American  initiative;   and 
the    newborn    respect    for    authority— 
when  such  authority  is  felt  to  exercise 
its   right   to    safeguard    the   nation — all 
these    fine    qualities    that     have     been 
slowly  crystallizing  during  the  past  forty 
odd  years  were  conspicuously  displayed 
83 


84  HEROIC  FRANCE 

during  the  panic  in  Paris,  when  the  Ger- 
mans were  known  to  be  at  Compiegne. 

During  the  three  or  four  days  of  flight 
of  a  million  or  more  Frenchmen,  women, 
and  the  foreigners  still  left  in  Paris— 
that  city  may  be  said  to  have  been, 
indeed,  in  a  state  of  panic;  but  it  was 
a  most  orderly,  civilized  panic.  There 
was  hurry,  but  no  confusion:  there  was 
the  tremor  of  uncertainty  born  of  dread, 
but  there  was  no  fear  displayed:  there 
was  tearful  farewells;  but  those  who 
were  condemned  to  remain  in  Paris— 
possibly  to  endure  a  long  siege — showed 
the  braver  face;  even  at  the  stations, 
the  chorus  was  "Au  revoir!"  "A  bientot!" 

The  larger  part  of  the  well-to-do  were 
indeed,  in  flight;  but  one  might  have 
thought  these  Parisians  were  only  in  a 
greater  haste  than  common  to  hurry 
to  the  sea-coast  for  the  September  out- 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      85 

ing — that  chosen  holiday  season  "pour 
les  petites  bourses,  qui  cherchent  les 
petits  trous  pas  chers." 

I  went  up  to  Paris,  on  August  29th, 
from  my  country  place  in  Normandy. 
Paris,  I  found  on  my  arrival,  presented 
an  entirely  new  face.  Streets  and  boule- 
vards were  all  but  deserted.  Most  of 
the  shops  were  already  closed.  One 
passed  drawn  shutters  and  tightly-locked 
iron  doors,  on  which  one  read  "ferme 
pour  cause  de  mobilisation."  The  Rue 
de  la  Paix  looked  a  graveyard  of  finery. 
The  Champs  Elysees  could  not  be 
crossed,  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night, 
without  the  uncanny  sense  of  its  being 
a  death-trap.  The  few  passers-by  one 
met  eyed  one  with  curious,  intent  gaze; 
in  every  foreigner  Parisians  saw  a 
possible  German  spy.  Could  one  blame 
them? 


86  HEROIC  FRANCE 

A  single,  friendly  gesture,  however, 
could  disarm  suspicion.  I  remember 
hurrying  down  a  side  street  near  the 
Arc  de  L'Etoile:  I  was  reading  the 
headlines  in  Le  Temps9  single  sheet.  A 
certain  paragraph  arrested  my  attention. 
I  stopped.  A  voice  at  my  elbow  asked, 
in  gentle  tones: 

"II  y  a  des  nouvelles — Madame?" 
The  face  that  was  lifted  to  mine  with 
its  anxious  eyes  and  grave,  controlled 
lips  told  its  story.  Here  was  a  mother 
or  wife,  with  her  beating  heart,  close 
beside  me.  As  I  read  on  to  that  gentle- 
faced  lady,  one  by  one  the  passers-by 
stopped — drew  near  to  listen.  When 
the  audience  grew  to  the  somewhat 
terrifying  number  of  fifteen  or  more,  I 
passed  the  newspaper  to  an  elderly 
gentleman.  I  had  been  fortunate  in 
my  choice  The  gentleman  possessed  a 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      87 

nicely  modulated  voice;  the  resonant 
tones  seemed  to  amplify  the  meagre 
lines  of  the  official  communique  to  a 
reassuring  fullness.  When  he  stopped 
and  passed  me  the  sheet,  his  bow — as 
he  lifted  his  hat — might  have  been  the 
recaptured  grace  of  lost  eighteenth  cen- 
tury manners. 

The  little  circle  lingered  on.  Everyone 
spoke  to  their  nearest  neighbor.  The 
confessed  advance  of  the  German  army, 
by  the  government — as  far  as  Soissons 
—was  gravely  discussed.  A  burly  grocer, 
his  white  apron  and  huge  basket  poised 
on  his  head,  proclaimed  two  patent  facts; 
that  his  "garcons"  were  at  the  front  and 
that  he,  the  patron,  obviously  over  age, 
was  his  own  errand  boy.  This  portly 
individual  announced  "The  Germans  will 
never  get  to  Paris:  our  forts  are  the 
strongest  in  the  world." 


88  HEROIC  FRANCE 

"They're  twenty-five  miles  beyond  the 
city,"  cried  exultingly  a  lad  in  his  early 
teens,  a  cigarette  dangling  between  his 
rosy  lips  to  prove  his  long  smoking 
habit. 

"If  only  they  respect  our  monuments," 
was  the  contribution  of  an  elderly  matron 
of  serene  aspect.  She,  perhaps,  had 
memories  of  1870  to  nurse  a  belief 
Germans  were  still  gentlemen  of  the 
nobler  type  of  the  Von  Moltkes,  and  of 
the  first  German  Emperor's  period. 

"Ah — the  fighting  there'll  be  before 
the  forts!"  The  gentle-faced  lady's  voice 
sounded  like  a  knell.  Its  accents  of 
subdued  dread  and  sadness  told  on  the 
little  crowd.  She  bore  unflinchingly 
the  eyes  that  instinctively  were  turned 
on  her;  she  responded  to  the  unuttered 
sympathy  she  felt  rising  about  her. 
With  a  smile  touchingly  sweet,  but 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      89 

one  bereft  of  life  or  joy,  that  was  like 
a  courtesy  in  its  comprehensive  sweep, 
she  went  her  way.  As  I  watched  the 
outlines  of  the  tall  shapely  frame  melting 
into  the  tender  greys  of  the  Paris  street, 
the  droop  of  the  slender  shoulders,  the 
controlled  dignity  of  the  step,  and  the 
bent  head  seemed  to  symbolize  future 
womanhood  in  France.  Thus  would  it 
meet  its  coming  bereavement  with  accept- 
ed resignation, — lighted  by  a  smile. 

For  two  days  Paris  lived  on  in  this 
unnatural  calm.  Its  effect  on  the  mind 
was  that  of  the  stupefying,  slumberous 
monotony  of  a  provincial  town.  The 
million  or  more  of  soldiers  who  had 
passed  through  Paris  from  the  provinces 
to  the  front  had  long  since  been  en- 
trained. There  was  still  some  show  of 
animation  at  the  Gare  du  Nord  and  at 
the  other  stations;  supplies,  horses,  guns 


90  HEROIC  FRANCE 

and  ambulance  stores  were  continually 
sent  on  to  follow  the  armies.  But  the 
life  of  the  Paris  streets  was  as  sluggish 
as  that  of  a  dammed  stream.  Even  the 
"Ouvroirs" — the  shops  opened  by  ladies 
to  supply  idle  working  girls  and  women 
with  means  of  livelihood — were  pathetic 
spectacles.  I  can  still  recall  the  deep- 
voiced  cry  of  a  gabereen-garmented  mer- 
chant of  unguents  in  the  bazaar  at 
Constantinople:  " Where,  O  Lord,  where 
are  the  buyers?"  The  accents  were 
freighted  with  a  biblical  intensity. 

The  serious-faced  French  women,  seat- 
ed behind  the  overflowing  "Ouvroirs" 
counters  might  well  have  echoed  that 
lament.  The  shops  were  full  of  chiffon 
fineries,  but  empty.  There  were  no 
buyers  left  in  Paris. 

The  life  of  Paris — its  gaiety,  its  bril- 
liance, its  yield  of  rich  and  picturesque 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      91 

contrasts,  its  multiform  activities  were 
all  as  dead — as  much  a  part  of  past 
memories — as  though  the  great  city  had 
been  stricken  by  some  new  form  of 
paralysis. 

On  Sunday,  late  in  the  afternoon  of 
August  31st,  Paris,  as  by  a  miracle,  woke 
up.  She  became,  almost  in  an  hour,  as 
though  electrified  by  a  dynamic  shock 
that  stirred  her  to  her  very  vitals.  The 
Avenue  du  Bois  de  Boulogne,  the  Champs 
Elysees,  the  broad  avenues  and  tributary 
smaller  streets  were  suddenly  choked 
with  rapidly  moving  vehicles  of  all  sorts. 
Through  all  that  long,  mild  August  night 
and  for  the  following  three  or  four  days 
strange  were  the  sights  one  looked  upon. 
The  great  thoroughfares  were  a  phan- 
tasmagoria, a  packed,  conglomerate  mass 
of  automobiles,  ambulance  wagons,  aero- 
planes, cars,  auto-taxies — the  latter 


92  HEROIC  FRANCE 

crowded  to  the  last  limit  of  space — and 
of  motor  trucks  filled  with  soldiers  or 
with  guns.  Had  the  familiar  sign  in 
England  been  the  label  attached  to 
hundreds  of  the  automobiles — "Families 
Removing" — one  might  the  better  have 
comprehended  the  heterogeneous  gather- 
ing of  live-stock,  pets,  and  human  beings 
filling  the  cars.  Trunks  and  band- 
boxes were  crowded  into  the  interior  of 
automobiles;  ladies  were  clutching  tiny 
dogs,  and  children  were  gravely  holding 
dolls  or  a  bird-cage.  I  saw  a  cat  and 
her  kittens  contentedly  sharing  the  broad 
lap  of  a  "nou-nou,"  while  her  sleeping 
charge  lay  crosswise  on  her  arm.  Such 
was  the  odd  assortment  one  might  see 
perched  on  the  top  of  a  hat-box,  or 
crowded  together  on  the  closed  hood  of 
a  landaulet — to  give  the  more  room  for 
luggage. 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      93 

What  curious  change  had  transformed 
Paris?  Had  the  order  come  from  the 
Minister  of  War  for  demolition  of  more 
houses  in  the  danger  zone,  about  Paris? 
Was  this  agitation  proof  of  a  new,  a 
more  serious  trouble?  Was  Paris  itself 
in  danger? 

Paris! 

As  one's  eyes  travelled  down  the 
length  of  that  great  stretch  of  verdure 
we  know  as  the  Champs  Ely  sees;  of 
its  grey-faced  facades, — of  that  street 
that  is  a  city  in  itself,  with  its  theatres, 
cafes,  children's  playground,  hotels,  the 
private  houses  with  their  sculptured  doors 
and  windows,  its  shops  and  palaces— 
the  street  that  begins  its  existence  to  the 
music  of  the  playing  fountains,  to  end 
it  in  the  majestic  Arc  de  1'Etoile — the 
whole  in  perfect  drawing — could  one 
look  upon  the  Champs  Elysees  bathed 


94  HEROIC  FRANCE 

in  the  glow  of  an  amber  sunset,  and  not 
have  one's  heart  seem  to  miss  its  beat, 
as  one  thought  of  this  playground  of 
all  the  world  in  danger  of  vandal 
desecration? 

It  was  at  a  little  restaurant  in  the 
Avenue  Victor  Hugo  that  the  explana- 
tion of  the  sudden  revival  of  life  in  the 
Paris  streets  was  given  us. 

We  were  three  who  sought  the  bril- 
liantly lighted  interior  of  a  restaurant 
one  had  passed  hundreds  of  times  and 
had  never  noticed.  The  same  was  doubt- 
less true  of  the  motley  crowd  that  filled 
the  tables.  One  recognized  the  faces 
familiarized  by  watching  them  at  dinners 
or  suppers  at  the  Ritz-Carlton,  at  Giro's, 
or  at  Paillard's.  There  were  several  of 
those  elderly  gentlemen  who  line  the 
red  benches  of  every  good  eating-house  in 
the  French  capital.  A  few  had  brought 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      95 

their  wives  and  daughters.  There  was 
a  group  of  French  soldiers  in  uniform; 
among  them  was  an  officer,  whose  clang- 
ing sword  and  shining  spurs  created 
a  distinct  impression  on  a  bevy  of  those 
"little  ladies"  (who  are  so  often  the 
reverse  of  little),  and  without  whom  no 
French  restaurant,  even  in  war  times, 
would  be  complete.  The  attention  of 
all  the  tables  was  immediately  con- 
centrated on  the  group  that  symbol- 
ized to  every  Frenchman  present,  army, 
flag  and  country.  One  almost  expected 
to  hear  the  murmurous  exclamations 
break  out  into  an  "Hurrah!"  or  a  si- 
multaneous chanting  of  the  Marseillaise. 

The  handsome  young  soldiers  present- 
ly suffered  an  eclipse  of  popular  favor. 

The  glass  doors  of  the  cafe  were 
suddenly  thrown  open;  a  crowd  of 
well-dressed,  but  somewhat  strangely 


96  HEROIC  FRANCE 

appareled  gentlemen  and  ladies  attracted 
every  eye.  The  prominent  figure  of 
the  group  was  that  of  one  of  the  Foreign 
Ministers.  This  latter  gentlemen  was 
at  once  surrounded.  One  of  the  gentle- 
men of  our  party  returned  from  greeting 
the  Minister  with  a  rather  fixed  smile 
and  the  air  of  a  man  charged  with  news. 

"We  know  now  the  secret  of  what 
has  happened  to  Paris,"  he  said  quietly, 
as  he  spread  his  napkin. 

"The    Germans    are    at    Compiegne." 

At  that  startling  announcement  the 
champagne  seemed  to  stop  sizzling. 
Those  at  the  tables  nearest  us  were 
still — rigid  with  intensity  of  interest. 

The  Minister,  our  friend  went  on,  had 
been  visiting  some  friends  at  Compiegne. 
Many  of  those  assembled  at  the  Chateau 
had  been  playing  tennis.  Bells  were 
heard  suddenly  ringing  throughout  the 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      97 

town.  Cries  in  the  streets  deafened  the 
ear: 

"The   Germans   are   coming!" 

"Les  Boches  sont  la,  sauvez-vous! 
sauvez-vous!" 

The  sinister  cry  rang  out  like  a  death- 
knell  throughout  the  city. 

"The  ladies,  it  appears,  took  time 
only  to  secure  their  jewels.  Everything 
else  was  left  behind  in  that  superb 
chateau — there  will  be  some  rich  looting! 
People  were  in  their  cars  in  a  few 
seconds.  Nothing  was  thought  of  but 
flight.  Those  who  could  not  command 
an  auto  have  been  forced  to  remain. 
Such  is  the  strength  of  the  advancing 
German  army — his  Excellency  tells  me 
he  could  hear  the  tramping,  the  steady, 
persistent  tramping  of  the  army  along 
the  resonant  macadam,  as  they  them- 
selves stopped  for  a  second  or  two 


98  HEROIC  FRANCE 

outside  of  the  town.  Yet  the  Germans 
were  still  several  miles  away." 

Again,  after  the  first  gasp  of  amazed 
horror,  the  clutching  thought  came — 
Paris!  Would  the  forts  hold?  Was 
the  Paris  army  ready  for  its  great  task? 
Would  those  destroyers — the  great  Ger- 
man siege  guns — reduce  Paris,  spoil  its 
lovely  face,  its  modernized,  Athenian 
beauty — as  Liege  had  been  all  levelled 
to  a  dust-bin,  to  ashes? 

The  last  laughter  one  was  to  hear 
in  Paris  for  many  a  day  was  that 
which  had  greeted  the  entrance  of  the 
soldiers.  All  the  tables  were  silent 
enough  now.  There  was  a  perfect  com- 
posure and  calm;  but  mirth  had  died 
out  in  the  hearts  of  these  Parisians. 

The  stars  in  the  Paris  sky  that 
night,  as  we  slowly  walked  homeward, 
were  blurred.  The  shadow  of  fear 


THE  GERMANS  AT  COMPIEGNE      99 

seemed  to  have  crept  into  the  darkened 
streets.  The  ear  was  haunted  by  the 
threatened  tramp,  tramp  of  that  men- 
acing army.  Did  Rome  hear  the  feet 
of  the  hurrying  millions  of  Huns,  rushing 
onward  to  annihilate  its  splendor?  Was 
Paris,  the  richest  jewel  of  beauty  on 
all  this  ever-turning,  ever  changing  world, 
to  have  its  glory  blotted  out,  by  these 
later  Vandals  from  the  North? 

The  awful  spectre  of  fear  came  out 
of  the  fastnesses  of  the  night  and  loomed 
large,  laying  down  beside  one,  close  to 
one's  pillow.  Never  had  a  fate  as  cruel, 
as  unjust,  as  unrelenting  in  its  de- 
structive possibilities  been  seen  with 
clearer  vision. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Pan's  on  the  Eve  of  Capture 

WITH  the  thrilling  news  that  the 
German  armies  were  at  Com- 
piegne,  only  fifteen  miles  distant 
from  the  capital,  the  whole  city,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  been  thrown  into  a  state 
of  panic.  That  precipitous  flight  of  over 
a  million,  in  two  days'  time,  to  the  inter- 
ior of  the  country  towards  Tours,  towards 
Normandy,  towards  the  coast  or  Bor- 
deaux, was  the  happier  lot,  as  I  have 
said,  of  the  comparatively  favored  few. 

What  of  the  millions  left  behind?  What 
was  to  be  their  fate?     What  hopes,  fears, 
100 


PARIS  ON  EVE  OF*GAP.?UflE:     101 


apprehensions  filled  the  minds  of  per- 
haps the  most  sensitive,  intelligent, 
imaginative  people  of  any  modern 
capital? 

As  hour  after  hour  passed,  between  the 
dates  of  August  31st  and  that  day  in 
early  September  when  Paris  awoke  to 
learn  the  army  of  General  von  Kluck  was 
retreating,  not  an  inhabitant  of  the 
French  capital  but  had  passed  through 
the  varying  phases  common  to  passion- 
wrought  emotion.  The  heart  and  mind 
of  every  Parisian  were  alternately  wrung 
by  an  anguish  of  fear,  of  awed  dread,  as 
they  also  leapt  to  the  sudden,  uplifting 
hope  that,  at  the  worst,  Paris  might  be 
called  upon  to  sustain  a  long  siege,  as  was 
the  case  in  the  war  of  1870.  It  was 
known  throughout  the  city  that  all  the 
houses  within  a  certain  radius  in 
the  suburbs  had  already  been  razed, 


102  HEROIC  FRANCE 

orders  having  been  issued  some  days 
before. 

The  sad-faced,  bewildered  looking 
procession  of  the  dispossessed  had  begun 
to  pass  into  the  city  from  the  danger 
zones  between  the  outer  forts  and  Paris. 
The  tightening  grip  of  dread  seemed  to 
clasp  the  closer  every  Parisian  who  looked 
on  the  passing  carts,  laden  donkeys, 
weary  foot-passengers,  and  desolate-eyed 
women — the  latter  seated  in  the  midst  of 
hastily  packed,  heterogeneous  masses  of 
household  goods  in  every  variety  of  ve- 
hicle. Here  was  the  stricken  advance 
guard  flying  before  the  army  of  occupa- 
tion, terribly  significant  of  what  Paris 
might  have  to  suffer,  might  surely  have 
to  face. 

Were  the  expected  siege  to  be  a  long 
one — well — Paris,  it  was  confidently  as- 
serted, at  least  would  not  starve.  Her 


PARIS  ON  EVE  OF  CAPTURE      103 

stores  of  supplies  were  said  to  be  all  but 
inexhaustible.  And,  for  a  long  while, 
there  would  be  the  rich  open  coun- 
try towards  the  South,  from  which  to 
draw  supplies.  No,  Paris  would  not 
starve.  There  would  be  no  necessity  laid 
upon  her  of  looking  forward  to  the  time 
when  horse-meat  would  be  considered  a 
luxury,  and  a  rat  would  sell  as  high  as  a 
hare  in  peace  days.  There  might  not 
always  be  a  chicken  in  the  pot;  but  one 
could  confidently  count  on  the  appetizing 
leek  and  a  bit  of  a  toothsome  joint.  And 
of  salads — that  crisp  vegetable  and  bever- 
age in  one — there  would  be  no  end. 

Thus  Paris  gossiped  and  talked — and 
shivered.  For  it  is  certain  that,  what- 
ever might  have  been  the  knowledge 
possessed  by  those  in  authority  as  to  the 
protective  strength  and  resources  of  the 
forts  and  the  army,  the  people  of  Paris 


104  HEROIC  FRANCE 

were  as  ignorant  of  what  efforts  were  be- 
ing made  to  save  the  city  as  was  the 
country  at  large. 

For  years  France  had  been  convinced 
the  forts  surrounding  Paris  could  never  be 
taken.  But  the  wide  range  of  the  huge 
German  siege  guns  and  their  destructive 
effects  on  Belgian  towns  had  demolished 
the  hopeful  theory  that  those  outer  forts 
would  hold  before  a  single  German  gun- 
man had  taken  up  his  position  to  sight 
his  guns  on  Paris.  If  the  forts  could  not 
withstand  the  invader's  guns,  what  was 
left?  What  hope  was  there  of  the  armies 
of  General  Joffre,  of  the  English  army, 
holding  off  the  rapidly  approaching 
hordes  of  the  Germans?  If  the  enemy 
could  get  as  near  to  Paris  as  Compiegne, 
what  was  to  prevent  their  triumphant 
on-rush  to  Paris? 


PARIS  ON  EVE  OF  CAPTURE      105 

Besides  the  dreaded  hordes  of  the  "bar- 
barians"— hordes  it  was  well  known  now 
were  as  destructive,  as  cruel,  as  remorse- 
less in  their  methods  of  warfare  as  were 
the  conquering  Huns  in  their  wanton 
despoiling  of  the  Roman  capital,  as 
pictured  to  us  by  historians — besides 
the  ruthless  German  armies,  there  were 
other  horrors  to  be  feared.  A  raid  of  the 
Zeppelin  fleets  sailing  the  skies  might 
wreck  what  was  left  of  Paris  after 
the  monster  siege  guns  had  trained  their 
fire  on  architectural  masterpieces  and 
had  made  the  Paris  streets  a  burial- 
ground  of  wrecked  homes  and  ruined 
civic  buildings. 

Was  Paris  to  suffer  the  destruction  al- 
ready meted  out  to  Liege,  to  Namur? 
The  thought  of  what  fate  held  in  store, 
perhaps,  for  this  City  of  Beauty, — for  the 
city  that  lures  the  civilized  world,  as 


106  HEROIC  FRANCE 

Athens  charmed  the  antique  world — this 
possibility  of  evil  coming  to  her,  made 
every  passerby  along  the  strangely  silent 
streets — the  hurrying,  elderly  postman; 
the  painted,  professional  seekers  of  men, 
anxious-eyed  now,  wistful,  of  doubly 
pathetic  aspect;  the  belated  suburban, 
hastening  to  his  train;  the  slipping,  fur- 
tive shapes  of  tramps;  and  the  shop- 
keepers, gloomily  shutting  down  windows 
whose  wares  had  tempted  no  buyers,— 
every  man  or  woman  seemed  to  assume 
new,  enormous  value.  Any  and  all  might 
be  called  upon  to  face  heroic  situations — 
might  be  starved  or  tortured  or  imprison- 
ed, might  see  one's  best  beloved  wounded 
or  killed  before  one's  eyes.  The  sluggish 
air  seemed  charged  with  this  tragic  men- 
ace. 

At  all  times  Paris  has  an  atmosphere 
peculiarly  its  own.     The  light,  buoyant 


PARIS  ON  EVE  OF  CAPTURE       107 

air  conveys  the  impression  of  being 
charged  with  certain  psychic  forces,  as 
though  the  millions  of  men  and  women 
who  have  lived,  suffered,  dreamed, 
worked  and  conquered  for  all  the  long 
centuries  of  its  eventful  life  were  still 
fluttering,  hovering  above,  inspiring 
those  who  continue  their  work.  On  this 
last  night  of  August,  the  ghosts  of  those 
who  had  fought,  had  bled,  had  incited  to 
riot,  had  struck  at  kings,  had  tortured 
their  queen,  had  fired  palaces,  or  had 
gone  down  to  heroic  death  in  defense  of 
the  great  city, — these  shapes  surely  peo- 
pled the  warm,  thick  night,  starless, 
moonless,  surcharged  with  suggestive 
memories. 

The  city,  as  a  city,  appeared  to  be  ac- 
cepting its  fate  with  the  despairing  atti- 
tude of  the  already  conquered.  Those  in 
authority  seemed  strangely,  unaccount- 


108  HEROIC  FRANCE 

ably  apathetic,  inactive.  What  was  hap- 
pening? Was  Paris  to  be  allowed  su- 
pinely to  suffer  the  fate  of  Brussels? 
Was  no  effort  to  be  made  to  save  her? 
What  was  the  Governor  of  Paris  doing? 
He  seemed  as  helpless,  confronted  by  this 
monstrous  calamity,  as  a  new-born  babe. 
Where  was  Joffre — the  saviour  of  French 
valour?  Had  those  in  power  lost  all 
sense  of  responsibility?  Had  even  the 
bravest  suffered  a  paralysis  of  energy,  at 
this  appalling  imminence  of  the  conquest 
of  Paris?  Surely,  at  the  last,  a  miracle  of 
salvation  would  come  to  pass  and  Paris 
would  be  saved. 

Thus  was  the  heart  of  every  Parisian 
alternately  rocked  by  the  fluctuations  of 
hope  and  fear. 

Meanwhile,  as  with  the  on-sweeping 
rush  of  a  destructive  fate,  three  German 
armies  were  apparently  swiftly,  irresisti- 


PARIS  ON  EVE  OF  CAPTURE       109 

bly  attempting  to  envelop  the  approaches 
to  the  great  French  capital. 


CHAPTER  X 

How  Paris  was  Saved 

THE  corps  of  the   German  army  of 
invasion  destined  to  capture  Paris 
was   composed    of  three  principal 
armies.     One,  commanded  by  the  Crown 
Prince,  formed  the  left  wing.     General 
von  Billow  was  in  the  center  and  General 
von  Kluck  commanded  the  right  wing. 
This  latter  army  had  crossed  the  whole 
of  Belgium.     It  had  been  necessary  for 
it  to  space  (echeloner)  its  posts  of  sup- 
plies.    Von  Kluck's  army  had  in  front 
of    it    the    English     army,    commanded 
by  General  French,   of  what  remained 
110 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          111 

of  his  80,000  men.  Future  historians 
who  will  describe  this  campaign  will 
say,  without  doubt,  that  the  admirable 
march  forward  on  Paris  executed  by 
General  von  Kluck  was  only  surpassed 
by  the  brilliant  retreat  of  General  French 
from  Mons. 

Faithful  to  the  great  principles  of  Ger- 
man strategy,  General  von  Kluck's  con- 
stant endeavor  was  concentrated  on  his 
attempt  during  the  whole  of  his  forward 
march  to  turn  the  left  wing  of  the  Eng- 
lish army.  This  latter  army,  commanded 
by  General  French,  lacked  a  base.  The 
army  of  General  Percin  would  have  been 
at  this  moment,  of  inestimable  succor. 
But  Percin,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
was  already  on  his  way  to  Rouen. 

With  General  von  Kluck  on  his  left, 
pressing  him,  harassing  him,  seeking  for 
every  point  of  vantage,  the  skill  which 


HEROIC  FRANCE 

places  General  French  high  among  the 
military  strategists  consisted  in  never 
for  one  instant  allowing  his  left  wing  to 
be  turned,  an  error  that  would  have  been 
fatal  to  the  armies  of  the  Allies.  He  was 
thus  able  to  preserve  during  the  whole 
course  of  his  retreat  a  position  parallel 
with  that  of  his  initial  position. 

It  appears  that  at  the  time  the  German 
army  had  advanced  as  far  as  Compiegne, 
some  scouts  were  sent  on  in  advance. 
Their  report  to  General  von  Kluck  had 
been  satisfactory.  The  Commander-in- 
Chief  felt  assured  a  forward  movement 
on  Paris  was  safe.  General  von  Kluck 
had  with  him  an  army  of  x  x  x  x  men, 
all  in  perfect  condition.  The  attendant 
fleets  of  aeroplanes,  of  Zeppelins  and  the 
convoys  of  big  siege  guns  were  ready. 

The  advance  began.  The  army  that 
had  marched  through  Brussels,  that 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          113 

had  fought  and  conquered  Belgium 
and  had  entered  and  taken  possession  of 
Compiegne,  was  made  ready  for  the  great- 
est capture  of  all — for  the  taking  of  the 
coveted  prize  of  Paris!  How  loudly  beat 
the  heart  of  every  German  soldier!  How 
the  voices  rang  up,  shouting  "Deutsch- 
land  liber  Alles!"  to  the  hated  French 
skies.  The  conquering  army's  sweep- 
ing, victorious  columns  were  soon  to 
prove  to  Paris,  to  France,  to  all  the 
world,  the  promised  word  of  the  Kaiser 
—come  true.  The  armies  would  be  in 
Paris  in  a  day,  in  a  few  hours,  to 
teach  Paris  and  Parisians  the  lesson 
they  had  taught  Brussels,  that  they 
had  taught  all  Belgium — that  those  who 
dared  defy  Germany  must  suffer  as  Bel- 
gium had  suffered.  Were  Paris  to  resist, 
were  her  forts  to  belch  forth  their  fire, 
Paris  would  be  levelled  with  the  dust.  In 


114  HEROIC  FRANCE 

the  heart  of  many  a  German  soldier  the 
hope  leapt  high  that  Paris  might  be  fool- 
hardy enough  to  make  her  cannon  talk. 
Such  suicidal  patriotism  would  mean  but 
larger  booty.  The  sacking  of  Paris!  The 
souls  of  Germans  shook  with  the  rap- 
ture of  covetous  greed  at  that  prospect. 

The  while,  the  German  columns  kept 
marching  on.  This  was  one  side  of  the 
great  historic  picture. 

On  the  other  side  of  this  tragic  situa- 
tion there  was  Paris. 

In  Paris  itself  during  this  period  of  pro- 
tracted anxiety  for  the  safety  of  the  city, 
the  accusation  was  seriously  made  against 
Monsieur  Hennion,  Prefet  de  Police,  and 
General  Michel,  Governor  of  Paris,  of 
having  insisted  the  government  should 
declare  Paris  an  open  city  that  it 
might  be  spared  the  horrors  of  bom- 
bardment. 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          115 

Whether  or  not  this  accusation  can  be 
sustained  or  denied  in  the  later,  fuller 
knowledge  of  the  situation,  it  is  certain 
the  ail-but  immediate  changes  insisted 
on  by  General  Joffre  support  the  above 
indictment.* 

On  learning  the  situation  in  which 
Paris  found  itself,  General  Joffre  rose  to 
the  great  emergency  with  the  resourceful 
energy  of  a  born  military  genius.  He 
decided  instantly  on  learning  the  appal- 
ling news  of  the  rapid  advance  of  the 
German  army  that  Paris  should  at 
least  attempt  a  vigorous  resistance.  The 
city  should  not  see  its  glorious  escutcheon 
blackened  by  the  disgrace  of  facile  con- 
quest. 


*  It  has  been  stated,  and  the  report  is  currently  believed  that 
Lord  Kitchener  came  over  to  Paris  at  this  critical  time,  and  that 
when  in  council  -with  General  Joffre,  certain  very  drastic  measures 
were  threatened  in  case  Paris  was  undefended.  These  reports  lack 
official  affirmation. 


116  HEROIC  FRANCE 

The  General  made  one  of  the  most 
spirited  rushes  from  the  front  to  Paris, 
ever  known  in  automobile  records.  On 
his  arrival,  without  losing  an  hour's  time, 
with  his  quick  insight  immediately  dis- 
cerning the  points  of  weakness  in  the 
grave  situation,  he  obtained  a  swift 
change  in  both  the  Prefecture  and  the 
Governorship  of  Paris.  General  Michel 
was  replaced  by  General  Gallieni,  the 
already  famous  General  who  had  given 
signal  proofs  of  energetic  resources,  not- 
ably in  the  governing  of  Madagascar. 

General  Joffre's  next  action  was  to 
perform  the  impossible. 

In  forty-eight  hours  he  had  assembled 
an  army  of  more  than  300,000  men  prin- 
cipally composed  of  men  belonging  to  the 
regiments  stationed  in  the  suburbs  of 
Paris,  and  to  the  garrisons  of  towns  in  the 
provinces  already  invaded.  This  hastily 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          117 

united  army  certainly  had  no  great 
military  value.  It  was  nevertheless  this 
army  that,  without  firing  a  single  shot, 
saved  Paris. 

While  Paris  was  being  thrilled  with  the 
new  courage  born  of  the  knowledge  that 
the  great  commander  was  actually  in  the 
city,  in  command  of  an  army  that  had 
risen  out  of  the  very  earth  as  it  seemed, 
since  no  one  knew  whence  it  had  come; 
was  being  uplifted  by  the  buoyant  hope 
that  Paris  might  be  saved;  since  what 
miracle  might  not  its  new  governor,  the 
renowned  General  Gallieni,  perform,  and 
with  the  genius  of  General  Joffre  to  guide 
him? — the  latter  was  about  to  startle 
Paris  by  the  working  of  a  miracle  indeed, 
and  one  accomplished  by  a  most  seem- 
ingly commonplace  measure. 

With  a  rapidity  of  conception  which 
history  will  preserve  as  long  as  history 


118  HEROIC  FRANCE 

lasts,  General  Joffre  was  to  prove  he 
knew  how  to  take  advantage,  and  in  the 
most  admirable  way,  of  the  fatal  blunder 
committed  by  the  enemy. 

Paris  on  a  certain  day  in  early  Septem- 
ber woke  up  to  the  fact  that  something 
extraordinary  was  happening.  At  the 
corner  of  every  street  policemen  stop- 
ped automobiles,  taxi-cabs  and  private 
carriages.  The  occupants  of  these  vehi- 
cles were  peremptorily  ordered  to  de- 
scend. The  drivers  in  their  turn  were 
given  directions  to  rush  at  full  speed  to 
the  barracks  of  the  Zouaves.  These 
Zouaves  then  constituted  the  flower  of 
the  army  of  defence  for  Paris.  General 
Joffre  was  about  to  attempt  one  of  the 
most  desperate  ventures  ever  essayed  by 
a  great  strategist. 

Meanwhile,  General  von  Kluck  on 
leaving  Compiegne  the  day  before  had 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          119 

announced — so  authentic  rumor  runs— 
that  on  the  following  night,  he  would 
sleep  in  Paris.  His  army,  to  the  last  man, 
was  already  feeling  the  heady  intoxica- 
tion of  assured  capture  of  the  city.  Even 
the  dullest,  most  unimaginative  German 
soldier,  as  on  and  on  his  disciplined, 
steady  tread  carried  him  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  French  capital,  was  dream- 
ing his  dream  of  what  was  to  happen  to 
him  once  he  trod  the  macadam  of  Paris. 
Above  the  ringing  shouts  of  the  singing 
thousands,  above  the  pulse-stimulating 
"Deutschland  iiber  Alles"  there  rang  a 
song  more  stirring  still.  There  was  the 
quick,  immediate  promise  of  hearing  one's 
musket  ring  down  its  steely  thump  on  the 
resounding  Paris  streets  before  the  very 
eyes  of  those  craven  Parisians.  There 
would  be  the  famous  Parisian  shops  to 
loot,  perhaps;  there  would  surely  be  the 


120  HEROIC  FRANCE 

great  wine  cellars,  from  which  to  drink 
one's  fill;  there  would  be  gold  given  out 
in  plenty,  doubtless,  since  the  French 
Banks  were  known  to  be  gorged  with 
money;  and  above  all  these,  there  would 
be  the  greatest  prize  of  all — the  beautiful 
French  women!  Can  one  wonder  the 
officers  in  command  found  difficulty  in 
restraining  their  men  from  a  too  im- 
petuous on-rush?  The  German  officers 
themselves  were  pricked  by  the  same 
exasperating  impatience;  their  imagina- 
tions were  working  on  more  assured 
grounds  of  sensuous  gratification. 

Their  commanding  General,  however, 
was  experiencing  very  different  emotions. 
Instructed  by  his  spies  that  important 
troops  had  been  assembled  within  the 
city  to  confront  him,  von  Kluck  was 
facing  a  most  difficult  situation.  If  this 
Parisian  army,  newly  constituted,  it  ap- 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          121 

peared,  could  but  succeed  in  stopping, 
even  for  a  very  few  days  von  Kluck's 
army,  it  could,  the  German  General 
reasoned,  at  the  same  time  easily  be 
supported  by  the  English  army  that  fif- 
teen days  of  retreat  had,  apparently,  not 
disorganized.  These  two  armies  could 
thus  easily  separate  his,  von  Kluck's 
army,  from  the  main  Germany  army.  It 
might  even  inflict  upon  him  a  defeat 
that  would  be  disastrous. 

The  arrival,  or  rather  the  forward 
movement  of  von  Billow  had  been 
checked,  as  General  von  Kluck  well  knew, 
by  the  necessity  laid  upon  the  General 
to  support  the  Crown  Prince;  von 
Billow's  progress  had  thus  been  seriously 
hindered.  He  could  not,  therefore,  un- 
supported rush  towards  the  west  to 
the  rescue  of  General  von  Kluck's 
army. 


122  HEROIC  FRANCE 

General  von  Kluck  was  thus  forced  to 
change  his  plan  of  attack;  he  found  him- 
self obliged  to  march  in  an  easterly  direc- 
tion in  order  to  insure  his  juncture  with 
the  main  German  army  under  von 
Bulow.  There  would  thus  always  be 
time  enough,  the  General  argued,  to  re- 
begin  their  united  rush  on  Paris,  which, 
in  any  case,  could  be  for  them  only  a  tri- 
umphant movement.  Had  this  plan  been 
carried  out,  the  German  armies  would 
have  entered  Paris  from  the  region  in  or 
about  Versailles. 

Forced  thus  to  deflect  his  course,  Gen- 
eral von  Kluck  suddenly  found  himself 
confronted  by  a  most  unexpected  and 
most  vigorous  defensive  attack.  The 
very  next  morning  when  General  von 
Kluck  began  afresh  his  march  on  Paris, 
his  right  wing  was  hotly  greeted  by  the 
muskets  of  the  5,000  Zouaves  who  during 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          123 

the  night  had  been  enabled  to  occupy 
and  to  entrench  themselves  in  a  com- 
manding position. 

What  was  happening? 

Had  the  army  that  had  gone  on  to  Le 
Mans  been  able  to  re-organize  itself? 
Were  these  unexpected  re-inforcements 
about  to  menace  his  rear? 

Von  Kluck  found  himself  obliged  to 
call  a  halt. 

The  very  next  morning  there  appeared 
General  Joffre's  order  of  the  day,  which 
in  its  simplicity  will  remain  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  examples  of  military  elo- 
quence in  French  annals. 

"Le  temps  n'est  plus  de  regarder  en 
arriere.  Toutes  troupes  qui  ne  pourront 
plus  avancer,  devront  rester  et  se  faire 
tuer  sur  leurs  positions." 

"The  time  has  come  when  there  can  be 
no  looking  backwards.  The  troops  who 


124  HEROIC  FRANCE 

find  they  cannot  advance  must  remain 
where  they  are  and  die  where  they 
stand." 

This  order  of  the  day  will  win  for  Gen- 
eral Joffre  his  seat  in  the  French  Aca- 
demy. 

But  the  gallant  French  troops  were 
never  called  upon  to  obey  that  glorious 
challenge  to  French  bravery. 

Within  less  than  half  a  day's  march  on 
Paris,  General  von  Kluck  found  himself 
forced  to  confront  one  of  the  bitterest 
moments  in  a  military  career.  To  ad- 
vance was  to  court  all  but  certain  dis- 
aster. Convinced  the  gallant  Zouaves 
that  had  met  the  advancing  troops  with 
such  murderous  fire  were  supported  by 
the  lately  assembled  French  army,  Gen- 
eral Joffre  had  seemingly  by  sheer 
magic  brought  into  being,  von  Kluck 
had  but  this  alternative;  he  must  retreat 


HOW  PARIS  WAS  SAVED          125 

or  commit  the  gravest  error  of  which  a 
commanding  General  could  be  guilty. 
An  army  of  defense  must  be  beaten  in  the 
field  before  a  great  city  like  Paris  could 
possibly  be  captured. 

In  the  face  of  his  wondering,  murmur- 
ing but  obedient  army,  General  von 
Kluck  gave  his  amazing  command.  The 
order  for  a  general  retreat  was  given. 

And  Paris  was  saved. 

The  battle  of  the  Marne  was  the  beaten 
General's  desperate  attempt  to  turn  the 
tragedy  of  failure  into  the  glory  of  a  vic- 
tory that  should  again  open  wide  the 
road  to  triumphant  entry  into  the  French 
capital. 

The  military  critics  who  have  tried  to 
explain  by  the  above  strategic  move- 
ments the  attitude  of  von  Kluck  have 
perhaps  been  unjust  to  him.  It  is  all 
but  officially  known  as  an  understood 


126  HEROIC  FRANCE 

fact  that  in  the  German  plan  the  honor 
of  first  entering  Paris  was  to  be  reserved 
for  the  Crown  Prince.  Such  a  triumph 
would  be  a  means  of  heightening  the 
prestige  of  the  Crown  Prince  in  Germany. 
Perhaps  von  Kluck  hesitated  at  the 
critical  moment  at  usurping  for  himself 
an  honor  which  had  not  been  intended 
for  him,  since  he  might  thus  draw  upon 
himself  the  resentment  of  the  young 
Prince  and  of  his  Imperial  father.  In 
any  case,  to  neither  one  nor  the  other  was 
there  to  be  ceded  the  honor  of  passing 
beyond  the  gates  of  the  French  capital. 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  Story  of  Lille's  Abandonment 

THE    tragedy  of   Lille  having   been 
apparently      abandoned     by    her 
commanding  General,  left    to  her 
fate,    and    practically    handed    over    to 
the  army  of  invasion  has  as    yet    never 
been  fully  explained.    Had  General  Percin 
remained  at    his  post;   had  he  obeyed 
the  orders  received  from  General  Joffre, 
instead  of  keeping  them    unopened    in 
his    coat  pocket  for  two  long  days,  the 
English    at    Mons,    would    never    have 
seen    the    flower    of    their    army    mown 
down;    and    the    battle   of    Mons    itself 
127 


128  HEROIC  FRANCE 

might,  according  to  the  highest  military 
authorities,  possibly  have  proved  the 
turning  of  the  tide  in  the  Allies  favor. 
Lille  would  have  been  saved  and  Paris 
would  never  have  been  threatened. 

But  a  party  of  Socialists  played  the 
part  of  fate  at  this  crisis. 

On  the  approach  of  the  Germans 
toward  Lille,  certain  of  the  leading 
radical-socialists  of  that  city  went  in 
a  body,  it  appears,  to  the  Prefet  of  Lille. 
They  suggested  to  that  functionary  that 
were  the  city  of  Lille  to  be  declared  an 
open  town  the  enemy  would  not  bom- 
bard it.  The  town  would  be  respected 
— its  art  treasures  would  be  saved  to 
the  city;  its  valuable  factories  would 
be  uninjured.  Lille  was  rich;  she  could 
afford  to  suffer  a  little  from  an  invading 
army;  far  better  to  pay  "through  the 
nose"  even  than  to  sacrifice  Lille  to  the 


LILLE'S  ABANDONMENT  129 

certain  destruction  wrought  by  the  Ger- 
man big  siege  guns. 

This  reasoning  appealed  to  the  Prefet. 
He  was  quite  willing  to  act  on  the  Com- 
mittee's suggestion  that  General  Percin 
and  his  army  of  150,000  men  should 
march  out  of  Lille,  leaving  the  city  to 
the  Municipal  government, — and  to  Ger- 
man mercy.  The  Prefet,  however,  re- 
minded the  timid  and  practical-minded 
Lille  Radicals  that  in  order  to  perfect 
this  plan,  an  order  from  the  Minister 
of  War  must  be  forthcoming,  since 
Monsieur  X.  had  no  authority  over 
Percin  nor  his  army. 

The  Committee  of  Radical-Socialists 
"saw"  the  force  of  that  argument.  They 
acted  on  it  with  amazing  celerity.  The 
committee  went  up  to  Paris.  They 
made  their  appeal  to  the  then  Minister 
of  War  who  apparently  viewed  the 


130  HEROIC  FRANCE 

case  laid  before  him  in  the  same  favorable 
light  as  had  the  Prefet.  The  Radical 
Socialists  returned  to  their  native  city 
with  the  signed  order  from  the  Minister 
of  War  in  their  pockets. 

In  the  meantime  the  British  army, 
80,000  strong,  had  been  bravely  con- 
fronting overwhelming  numbers  of  the 
Germans  at  Mons.  This  was  on 
August  23rd. 

The  English  were  in  front  of  Maubeuge, 
facing  Mons,  and  had  as  their  mission 
to  retard  the  advance  of  the  German 
army  while  the  French  army  was  trying, 
at  Dinant,  to  cut  off  by  an  energetic 
attack  a  part  of  the  German  army  from 
its  base  of  supplies  and  to  take  it 
between  the  lines.  The  English  army 
soon  found  it  could  not  continue  its 
resistance  against  500,000  Germans.  Un- 
less reinforcements  were  speedily  brought 


LILLE'S  ABANDONMENT  131 

to  their  help,  annihilation  stared  them, 
grim-eyed,  in  the  face.  General  Joffre 
sent  post  haste  his  orders  to  General 
Percin  to  hasten  to  Mons  to  relieve 
the  then  all  but  decimated  English 
troops. 

But  General  Percin  was  awaiting  the 
answer  the  Radical-Socialists  were  carry- 
ing to  Lille  in  their  coat  pockets.  In 
his  own  General's  pocket  Percin  kept 
the  Commander-in-Chief's  order  for  two 
days  unopened. 

Meanwhile  the  gallant  English  army 
was  being  slaughtered  like  sheep  brought 
to  the  shambles  at  Mons.  A  regiment 
of  the  Highlanders  was  reduced  in  two 
hours'  time  from  2,000  to  600. 

It  was  then  that  the  English  General, 
finding  himself  hopelessly  outnumbered, 
and  no  reinforcements  in  sight,  began 
the  retreat  whose  orderly  execution  has 


132  HEROIC  FRANCE 

already  won  for  General  French  historic 
distinction. 

Meanwhile  General  Joffre,  discovering 
Percin's  inexplicable  inactivity,  made 
his  own  historic  journey  to  Paris.  Here 
he  was  made  acquainted  with  the  facts 
of  the  part  played  by  the  Radical- 
Socialists,  of  the  order  given  by  the 
War  Minister  to  General  Percin,  and 
furthermore,  of  Percin's  army  having 
already  evacuated  Lille  marching  on 
towards  Rouen.  In  a  few  hours,  a 
complete  revolution  of  the  Cabinet  was 
accomplished.  The  over-complacent  War 
Minister,  Monsieur  Messimy,  was  turned 
out  and  Monsieur  Millerand  replaced 
him.  Monsieur  Delcasse,  Monsieur 
Briand — the  two  ablest  and  most  bril- 
liant statesmen  France  possesses — ac- 
cepted at  an  instant's  notice,  and  without 


LILLKS  ABANDONMENT  133 

an  instant's  hesitation,  the  posts  they 
now  occupy  in  the  Cabinet. 

General  Joffre  had  announced  to  the 
heads  of  the  French  government  his 
ultimatum;  were  contradictory  orders  to 
be  issued  from  the  War  Office  in 
moments  of  crisis,  he  must  resign.  Either 
he  was  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
French  army  or  he  was  not.  General 
Percin  having  received  orders  from 
the  Minister  of  War,  at  a  time  and 
moment  when  it  was  of  the  greatest 
importance  his  army  should  be  hastening 
to  the  rescue  of  General  French — orders 
to  that  effect  having  been  forwarded 
from  Headquarters — he  had  naturally 
believed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  obey  the 
command  of  the  only  authority  superior 
to  that  of  the  Commander-in-Chief. 

Lille,  in  consequence,  was  captured. 
And  the  battle  of  Mons,  that  might 


134  HEROIC  FRANCE 

well  have  proved  a  turning  point  in  the 
fortunes  of  the  Allies,  was  lost. 

When  the  German  Uhlans,  numbering 
only  3,000,  entered  Lille,  the  officer 
commanding  this  force  presented  him- 
self at  the  Mairie,  speaking  perfect 
French.  He  was  recognized  as  having 
been  in  the  employ  of  one  of  the  most 
important  manufacturies  in  town.  When 
some  of  his  men  went  into  adjacent 
private  stables  to  requisition  some  horses, 
this  former  spy,  now  an  accredited 
German  in  high  command,  pointed  to 
certain  houses  further  up  the  street, 
assuring  his  men  better  mounts  would 
be  found  in  the  designated  dwellings. 

General  Percin  meanwhile,  it  is  said, 
had  taken  pains  to  dismantle  the  forts, 
taking  certain  of  the  guns  with  him. 
He  had  left  four  or  five  thousand  Ter- 
ritorials behind  him.  When  the  Uhlans 


LILLE'S  ABANDONMENT  135 

entered  the  city,  some  of  these  troops 
were  found  cooking  their  evening  meal. 
They  were  decimated,  to  the  last  man. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Army  I  Saw  at  Lisieux 

ON  my  return  journey  from  Paris  to 
my  country  place  near  Honfleur, 
Normandy,   chance  gave  me  an 
insight     into     a     strategic    movement, 
brilliantly  planned,   of   General  Joffre's 
far-reaching  outlook  in  case  his  defense 
of  Paris  should  prove  unsuccessful. 

On  descending  from  the  train,  the  sta- 
tion was  swarming  with  English  soldiers. 
Many  were  out  of  the  cars;  they  were 
gathered  in  thick  groups  about  the  near- 
est hydrants;  laughing,  joking,  pushing, 
jostling  one  another,  the  "Tommies" 
136 


THE  ARMY  I  SAW  AT LISIEUX    137 

were  enjoying  their  sousing  as  only 
Englishmen  delight  in  the  use  of 
water. 

Once  our  own  cars  had  rolled  on,  leav- 
ing the  track  clear,  long  trains  filled  with 
Khaki-clad  figures  revealed  the  presence 
of  thousands  and  thousands  of  British 
soldiers.  There  were  regiments  of  the 
line,  there  were  artillery  regiments,  there 
were  cavalry  regiments;  there  were  also 
white-capped,  blue-cotton-gowned  Army 
nurses  jumping  in  and  out  of  their  own 
special  ambulance  cars.  Horses  could  be 
seen  in  their  boxes  nibbling  at  full  bags; 
saddles  were  strewn  in  heaped-up  masses; 
one  weary  artillery  man  was  stretched  at 
full  length  on  a  roll  of  blankets,  his  head 
having  for  a  pillow  the  seat  of  a  saddle. 
He  was  fast  asleep,  in  a  slumber  so  pro- 
found the  noisy  cries,  the  laughter,  and 
the  shouting  voices  about  him  were  as 


138  HEROIC  FRANCE 

unheard  as  though  he  were  in  his  own  bed 
in  the  quiet  English  village  which,  doubt- 
less, he  had  only  recently  left. 

In  the  Buffet,  dozens  of  officers  were 
quietly  breakfasting.  The  English 
speech,  the  low,  drawing-room  tones,  the 
restrained  gestures,  the  graceful  shapes 
and  the  clear-cut  features  made  this  little 
French  Restaurant  assume  a  strangely 
foreign  aspect.  Townspeople  were  gath- 
ered at  doorways  and  windows  to  look 
their  fill.  The  comments  on  the  well- 
turned-out  Englishmen,  on  their  alert, 
yet  subdued  ways,  on  their  ways  also  of 
eating  and  sitting,  even  of  crossing  their 
legs,  clasping  a  foot,  after  finishing  their 
meal  and  the  lighting  of  their  cigarettes— 
the  comments  of  the  lookers-on  were 
characteristically  French. 

"Ah,  les  gaillards,  they  know  how  to 
make  themselves  comfortable!" 


THE  ARMY  I  SAW  AT LISIEUX    139 

"See  the  money  fly!"  cried  a  long-nosed 
Norman,  his  eyes  greedily  glistening,  as 
he  saw  an  elderly  General  bring  out  a 
thick  roll  of  French  bills. 

"How  they  sit,  as  easy  as  though  they 
were  in  a  salon!" 

"And  their  clothes  all  as  tidy  as  though 
on  parade." 

"So  are  the  men — well  dressed.  Yet 
one  told  me  they  had  been  in  the  trenches 
for  a  fortnight." 

"And  two  days  and  two  nights  on  the 
way!"  added  lustily  a  lad  bursting  with 
the  importance  of  his  contribution. 

"Well,  they  are  a  brave  lot.  They  only 
complain  of  one  thing — they  have  no 
tobacco." 

The  words  carried  an  inspiring  sugges- 
tion. To  learn  the  unaccountable  reasons 
for  an  English  army  here,  at  Lisieux,  en- 
trained, going  West  or  South  (all  the  en- 


140  HEROIC  FRANCE 

gines  were  heading  apparently  towards 
the  coast)  was  a  mystery  that  must  be 
solved. 

The  presiding  genius  at  the  Buffet 
obligingly  helped  me  to  solve  the  mys- 
tery. With  our  arms  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  cigarettes,  my  maid  and  I 
were  soon  busily  passing  bundles  of  cig- 
arettes to  the  outstretched  soldier  hands. 
I  have  never  experienced,  I  think,  as  popu- 
lar afmoment.  Cries  all  along  the  line 
rose  up,  a  pleading,  laughing  chorus. 
"Here,  lady — don't  forget  a  poor  lad 
whose  mother  will  bless  you!"  "Three 
cheers  for  the  lady!"  "And  one  for  the 
bonnie  lassie!"  "And  here,  lady,  not  a 
smoke  in  a  week!  God  bless  you!"  The 
response  to  our  modest  action  was  be- 
ginning to  be  somewhat  overwhelming, 
when  an  officer,  stepping  from  the  near- 


THE  ARMY  I  SAW  AT LISIEUX    141 

est  car,  touching  his  cap,  suddenly  con- 
fronted me. 

"Let  me  thank  you,  also,  Madam,  for 
your  kindness  to  my  men.  I  wish  I  could 
express  my  gratitude  adequately." 

My  ruse  had  succeeded.  I  must  make 
quick  use  of  the  opportunity,  for  already 
orders  to  entrain  were  being  rushed  along 
the  line. 

I  had  but  one  question  to  ask.  I  de- 
livered my  blow. 

"You  can.  Why,  can  you  tell  me,  are 
you  heading  South,  or  West,  turning  your 
backs  on  Paris,  when  the  Germans  are  at 
Compiegne?" 

Even  the  perfect  armor  of  complete 
self-mastery  every  English  gentlemen 
wears  as  part  of  his  training  and  ancestral 
inheritance  may  occasionally  be  pierced. 
The  blue  eyes  that  were  staring  at  me 
opened  wide  as  I  hurled  my  question; 


142  HEROIC  FRANCE 

and  a  faint  flush  rose  on  the  dark,  tanned 
cheek. 

There  was  moment's  hesitation:  there 
was  a  perceptible  recoil;  and  then  the 
gentleman  had  himself  completely  in  hand . 
Again  he  touched  his  cap.  His  smile  was 
still  kindly,  but  the  tone  was  edged  with 
a  distinct  note  of  irony. 

"Ah,  Madam!  You  are  asking  for  what 
I  cannot,  alas!  give  you — for  a  military 
secret." 

"I  know  I  am.  But,  unless  you  will  at 
least  give  me  a  hint  of  the  truth,  how  do 
you  know  what  I  may  do?" 

The  hearty  English  laughter  assured 
me  my  volley  had  hit  its  mark. 

I  then  confided  the  fact  that  I  was  to 
sail  for  America  on  the  morrow;  that  I 
was  going  on  a  small,  slow  ship,  and  there- 
fore could  be  trusted  to  keep  any  secret 
for  at  least  ten  days;  also  having  lived  in 


THE  ARMY  I  SAW  AT LISIEUX    143 

France  for  fifteen  years,  and  having  been 
identified  with  Normandy  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  I  was  as  safe  a 
guardian  of  a  secret  as  even  a  man  or  a 
Frenchman  could  be. 

"Can  you  really  keep  a  secret?"  The 
blue  eyes  laughed  again  into  mine  their 
doubting  smile.  The  officer  wouldn't 
have  been  a  man  had  he  not  also  lightly 
mocked  at  me  with  his  amused,  incredu- 
lous tone. 

I  finally  convinced  him  of  my  trust- 
worthiness. The  pact  made  was  that  I 
should  divulge  no  hint  either  of  having 
seen  the  entrainment,  or  of  the  destina- 
tion of  the  troops,  until  after  landing  at 
New  York,  and  not  even  then  were 
the  Germans  to  force  their  way  through 
Paris. 

I  was  thereupon  told  the  reasons  for  this 
movement  of  an  army  south.  Five  hun- 


144  HEROIC  FRANCE 

dred  thousand  men,  English  and  French 
were  to  concentrate  at  Le  Mans,  there  to 
block  the  way — in  case  of  an  advance 
along  the  coast — or  a  dash  of  the  German 
fleet  for  the  harbors  of  Cherbourg  or 
Brest.  That  was  all  I  was  to  learn  from 
the  officer.  For  the  order  "Board  the 
train!"  "On  board!"  were  being  given. 
My  kind  friend  of  ten  minute's  intimacy 
— for  is  not  confidence  the  supreme  test 
of  true  friendship? — after  shaking  my 
hand  had  leapt  to  his  post.  The  parting 
words  I  heard,  as  he  leant  his  tall,  grace- 
ful shape  through  the  car  window,  I  hear 
still: 

"If  you  keep  this  to  yourself,  for  ten 
days,  I'll  begin  to  believe  in  a  woman's 
word — again!" 

If  this  charming  officer  should  ever  see 
this  page,  he  will  know  he  can  renew  his 
faith.  Five  months  have  elapsed  since  his 


THE  ARMY  I  SAW  AT  LISIEUX     145 

confession  of  lost  illusions  and  the  musi- 
cal, vocal  note  that  rose  above  the  ruder 
cries  of  "Cheers  for  the  Ladies;"  since  the 
waving  of  caps,  the  puffing  of  volumes  of 
smoke  from  the  densely  packed  groups  of 
happy-faced  Tommies  who  crowded 
about  doorways  to  wave  hands  and  caps, 
and^tojshout  "Good  bye!  Meet  us  again 
at  the  next  station,  Lady,  Good  bye!" 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  German  Fort  Near  Caen 

THE    command     of    the    Le    Mans 
Railroad     junction    was    not     the 
only   strategic    point   involved    in 
sending  an  army  to  guard  the  doors  of 
Upper   Normandy,    of    Cherbourg,    and 
of  Brest. 

There  was  more  at  stake.  Some  few 
years  ago — three,  as  far  as  my  memory 
serves  me — on  my  frequent  automobile 
rides  to  Caen,  I  became  interested  in 
watching  the  building  of  what  looked 
like  foundries  going  on  a  few  miles 
outside  of  this  former  capital. 
146 


THE  GERMAN  FORT  NEAR  CAEN  147 

A  large  tract  of  land,  several  wide 
acres  in  extent,  had  been  razed  bare  of 
trees,  farms,  hedges  and  even  of  fertile 
fields  and  grassland.  The  future  plan 
of  construction  obviously  involved  an 
extensive  outlay  of  both  capital  and 
labor.  Little  by  little,  signs  of  the 
character  of  the  enterprise  became  more 
and  more  evident.  Workmen's  houses 
lined  the  French  military  road  that 
joins  Pont  L'Eveque  to  Caen.  These 
houses  were  no  mere  temporary,  make- 
shift habitations;  they  were  of  solid 
masonry,  stone-faced.  These  dwellings 
commanded  the  approach  of  the  road 
leading  to  Caen. 

Gradually,  huge  buildings,  tall  chim- 
neys and  wide  areas  of  solidly-laid 
concrete  disfigured  the  lovely  Normandy 
landscape.  Far  as  the  eye  could  see, 
dummy  engines  running  on  improvised 


148  HEROIC  FRANCE 

rails  and  cars  filled  with  earth  that  had 
a  tawny  tint,  traversed  the  now  stricken 
land.  This  colored  dirt  was  a  valuable 
mineral  ore. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  military  road 
uprose  during  the  summer  of  1913  a 
towering  earthwork — a  sort  of  miniature 
hillock.  On  top  of  this  artificially-made 
prominence,  there  soon  appeared  a  huge, 
roomy  dwelling,  the  latter  capped  by  a 
turret-like  tower.  The  architecture  of 
this  house,  as  was  that  of  the  workmen's 
houses  and  of  the  various  other  minor 
buildings  was  sufficiently  striking  in 
character  to  provoke  amazed  comment. 
No  Frenchman,  it  seemed,  could  possibly 
have  designed  lines  and  proportions  that 
thus  outraged  every  canon  of  taste. 

Inquiries  as  to  what  the  house  on  its 
strangely  planned  elevation  might  be 
were  not  readily  answered.  Workmen 


THE  GERMAN  FORT  NEAR  CAEN  149 

passed  one  by  shrugging  indifferent 
shoulders.  The  bosses,  "les  patrons," 
turned  their  backs  and  quickly  made 
for  distant  objective  points  when  ques- 
tioned. It  was  only  at  the  end  of  a 
year — last  summer,  1914,  in  July — that 
I  was  able  to  elicit  the  following  curt 
answer  to  my  questioning: 

"The  house  up  there — la  haut? — it 
is  the  Superintendent's  house." 

"But  why  build  a  hill,  along  a  road- 
side and  on  a  plain?" 

The  man  assumed  a  dogged,  sullen 
look,  "Sais  pas" — and  walked  on. 

In  the  city  of  Caen  itself  no  one 
seemed  to  be  able  to  give  more  definite 
information. 

Bare,  hideous,  as  was  now  this  part 
of  the  land  thus  desecrated  for  com- 
mercial necessities,  unsightly  as  were 
the  huge,  towering  chimneys  and  the 


150  HEROIC  FRANCE 

curiously-built,  turret-like  furnaces,  over 
this  whole  tract  of  land  there  stretched 
a  strange  veil  of  mystery.  Something 
sinister,  a  something  uncanny  hung  about 
the  place,  as  though  some  hidden  menace 
or  danger  lurked  in  the  very  shadows 
cast  by  the  uprising  buildings.  Those 
engaged  in  the  vast  works  added  to  this 
sense  of  nameless  semi-terror.  The 
empty  road,  on  the  approach  of  an 
automobile,  was  in  itself  confession  that 
a  secret  was  to  be  guarded. 

On  October  20,  1914,  you  might  have 
read  in  any  of  the  French  papers,  that 
"At  the  Council  of  the  Ministers  held 
this  morning  under  the  presidency  of 
M.  Poincare  the  Minister  of  Public 
Works  has  communicated  the  results 
of  an  inquest  he  had  ordered  made  into 
the  nature  and  character  of  the  Nor- 
mandy mines.  The  Dielette  mine, 


THE  GERMAN  FORT  NEAR  CAEN  151 

owned  by  M.  Thyssen,  must  be  seques- 
tered, according  to  the  decree  of  27 
Septembre,  and  because  of  its  proximity 
to  the  forts  of  Brest. 

"The  Lechatelier-Thyssen  Company, 
owners  of  the  Caen  Foundries,  had 
contracted  with  the  Thyssen  Firm  to 
furnish  them  with  mineral  ore  and  coal. 
These  contracts  are  null  and  void  under 
the  same  decree." 

Such  was  the  official  announcement 
of  this  interesting  German  plan  for  an 
easy  capture  of  Caen  and  Cherbourg. 
For  German  the  two  firms  were,  and  it 
was  Krupps,  it  is  unofficially  stated, 
but  affirmed  under  excellent  authority, 
who  were  the  owners  of  the  two  prop- 
erties, the  real  ownership  being  dis- 
guised under  the  name  of  their  agents, 
Lechatelier-Thyssen — the  latter  a  cele- 
brated German  capitalist. 


152  HEROIC  FRANCE 

The  earthwork,  on  investigation  by 
the  French  authorities,  was  found  to 
be  a  miniature  fort  provided  with  loop- 
holes. This  fort,  together  with  the 
workmen's  houses,  solidly  built,  com- 
manded the  approach  along  the  military 
road.  The  Superintendent's  house,  high- 
perched,  with  its  hideous  but  business- 
looking  tower,  overlooked  the  Caen 
plains  for  miles.  Within  the  house  were 
maps — maps  whereon  were  designated 
every  road,  lane,  field,  house  and  farm. 
Every  known  instrument  for  use,  in 
sighting  either  distance  or  guns,  was 
found  in  abundance.  The  solid  concrete 
foundations  behind  the  embankment 
thus  partly  screened  from  view,  would 
furnish  the  necessary  base  for  the  German 
siege  guns. 

The  plan  was  thus  laid  bare  for  an 
easy  capture  of  Normandy.  Had  Paris 


THE  GERMAN  FORT  NEAR  CAEN     153 

fallen,  the  conquering  German  army 
would  have  marched  on  through  Nor- 
mandy, laying  waste  this  garden  of 
Northern  France.  Mantes,  Evreux, 
Lisieux,Pont  PEveque — each  jewel  of  Cal- 
vados in  turn  would  have  been  despoiled 
of  its  architectural  treasures.  And  Caen 
—grey -faced,  spire-crowned  Caen,  whose 
streets  have  the  wandering  grace  of  a 
flowing  stream,  whose  Norman,  Gothic 
and  Renaissance  sculptures  and  archi- 
tectural masterpieces,  whose  Cathedrals 
and  private  hotels  are  set — as  Bellini 
framed  his  Madonnas,  in  an  arabesque 
of  blossoms  and  flowers — Caen  would 
doubtless  have  shared  the  same  tragic 
fate  as  Rheims. 

Was   there   not,    indeed,    need    of   an 
army  at  Le  Mans? 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Modern  Frenchmen 

GENERAL  JOFFRE  will  stand  out 
among  the  heroic  figures  of  this 
stupendous  struggle  as  Plutarch's 
men  have  stood  to   the  world   for   two 
thousand  years  of  hero  worship.    In  the 
make-up  of  this  remarkable  man  there 
are  the  antique  Roman  virtues  of  the 
noblest  courage  and  the  loftiest  patriot- 
ism allied  to  an  American  resourcefulness 
and  power  of  initiative.    There  is  a  sub- 
base  in  his  nature  that  seems  to  draw  its 
inherited    strength   rather   from   Anglo- 
Saxon  sources  than  from  the  more  emo- 
tionable French  strain.    He  has  been  com- 
154 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  155 

pared  to  General  Grant;  in  both,  the 
exercise  of  quiet  power  has  been  part  of 
the  secret  of  their  success.  General 
Joffre  has  the  ruminating  trait  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  American  General,  also 
highly  developed.  Slow  to  form  conclu- 
sions, he  shows  powerful  energy  as  a 
resolute,  dogged  fighter. 

In  General  Joffre's  talent  of  restraint, 
in  his  capacity  for  holding  back  until  the 
moment  to  strike  comes;  in  his  superb 
calm  and  rare  knowledge  of  his  own  men 
— of  their  capacities,  talents,  possibilities 
of  heroism,  and  how  to  with-hold  their 
inflammable  impulse  to  court  death 
rather  than  not  to  meet  the  enemy  more 
than  half-way — he  has  shown  himself  a 
master  of  strategy,  as  well  as  possessing 
the  military  genius  with  which  every 
great  General  must  be  endowed — or  he 
fails  as  the  ideal  leader  of  his  armies. 


156  HEROIC  FRANCE 

"Le  pere  Joffre,"  as  his  soldiers  lovingly 
call  him,  is  implicitly  trusted  by  his  vast 
army,  by  the  War  Office,  and  through- 
out France.  No  higher  praise  can  be 
awarded  even  to  a  Napoleon. 

Born  in  a  small  town  in  the  Pyrennies 
— Rivesaltes,  near  Perpignan,  a  town  on 
one  of  those  stony  rivers  wittingly  de- 
scribed by  Alphonse  Karr  as  "a  river  in 
which  the  washerwomen  dry  their 
clothes,"  there  was  neither  illustrious 
parentage  nor  disturbing  environment  to 
hinder  the  development  of  those  qualities 
of  simplicity,  modesty  and  naturalness 
that,  like  certain  shy  flowers,  bloom  best 
in  the  shade. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  General 
Joffre's  bearing  and  attitude  is  simplicity. 
That  trait  alone  might  seem  to  mark  him 
as  one  destined  to  play  a  great  role,  since 
the  greater  the  man,  the  less  of  pose  will 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  157 

there  be  in  his  composition.  General 
Joffre's  choice  in  dressing  proclaims  his 
indifference  to  appearances.  On  his  Gen- 
eral's uniform  the  only  insignia  of  his 
rank  to  be  seen  are  the  three  little  em- 
broidered stars  on  the  collar  and  sleeves. 
Not  a  single  decoration,  not  a  cross  en- 
livens the  dull  black  coat.  "Big,  a  little 
heavy,  but  supple,  well  set  up,  firmly 
planted  on  his  straight  legs,  the  General 
gives  one  an  impression  of  force — not  the" 
brutal,  aggressive  force  of  a  Bismarck, 
but  rather  the  strength  of  the  bull,  power- 
ful, patient,  good,  the  artisan  of  fruitful 
harvests,"  says  one  of  the  French  Gen- 
eral's admirers. 

In  the  eyes  there  is  set  a  bit  "of  the 
light  blue  sky  of  France,"  the  writer  adds 
— "the  whole  face  illuminated  by  this 
tender  gaze — a  look  which  surprises  and 
charms." 


158  HEROIC  FRANCE 

The  genius  of  this  great  man  presents 
rare  qualities  in  perfect  equilibrium. 
There  is  no  discord,  no  seeming  com- 
plexity in  the  make-up  of  this  unusual 
character.  The  countenance  reveals  the 
man  healthy,  happy.  "Neither  illness 
nor  ambition,  nor  the  passions  nor  sorrow 
have  left  their  imprint  on  this  composed, 
resolute  face." 

Another  French  writer  has  said  of  him 
that  his  is  a  "nature  moyenne  agrandie." 
No  one  of  the  traits  in  the  French  Gen- 
eral's character,  taken  separately,  would 
surprise  or  prove  greatness.  In  their  en- 
semble, the  capacity  for  long,  laborious 
work,  the  power  of  reflection,  the  high 
sense  of  justice,  the  rare  professional  con- 
science that  can  be  both  severe  and  yet 
appreciative,  and  above  all,  the  possession 
of  infinite  patience — it  is  in  the  union  of 
all  these  qualities  in  perfect  balance  that 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  159 

we  find  the  secret  of  the  great  general's 
strength. 

For  years  General  Joffre  has  foreseen 
the  coming  of  the  present  war  in  Europe. 
Again  and  again  he  has  lifted  a  prophetic 
voice. 

"To  be  ready  to-day  all  the  resources 
of  the  country,  all  the  intelligence  of  the 
people,  all  their  moral  energy,  must  have 
been  directed  with  method, with  tenacity, 
towards  a  single  end — towards  victory. 
Everything  must  have  been  organized, 
foreseen.  Once  hostilities  are  declared, 
no  improvisation  will  avail.  What  is 
then  lacking  will  always  be  lacking.  The 
least  mishap  might  cause  a  disaster." 

And  again: 

"Each  and  all  must  help  in  the  prepa- 
ration for  the  national  defense.  No 
single,  individual  action  must  be  lost. 
The  goodwill  of  all  is  necessary.  .  .  . 


160  HEROIC  FRANCE 

This  preparation  is  dependent  for  results 
on  all  effort,  general  or  particular,  posi- 
tive or  negative,  intelligent  or  mistaken, 
past  or  present,  in  all  the  branches  of 
national  activity.  Such  preparation  is 
allied  to  national  life,  and  can  be  devel- 
oped in  perfect  harmony  with  the  activity, 
the  prosperity  and  the  civilization  of  the 
country." 

While  conscious,  "intelligent"  prepa- 
ration for  such  a  war  as  we  now  see 
France  is  waging  against  Germany  may 
not  have  been  an  organized  national 
movement,  the  steady  advance,  the  silent 
forces  in  the  upbuilding  of  French  char- 
acter have  produced  results  that  have 
won  praise  even  from  her  enemies. 

Many  of  the  traits  revealed  by  the 
great  circumstance  of  war  in  General 
Joffre's  character  may  be  said  to  be  es- 
sentially modern  French  traits.  The 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  161 

character  of  the  whole  French  nation  has 
been  going  through  a  most  interesting 
process  of  evolution  during  the  past  forty 
odd  years.  This  development  has  been 
particularly  noticeable  within  the  last 
ten  years. 

Had  Germany  wished  for  an  easy  vic- 
tory, she  should  not  have  waited  forty 
years  to  attack  France.  In  those  four 
decades  the  whole  French  nation  has 
been  given  a  chance  for  growth,  for  the 
development  of  some  of  its  best  and 
noblest  energies.  The  democratic  form 
of  government  has  spread  throughout  the 
whole  nation,  the  light  of  an  illuminated 
hope;  for  the  first  time  in  its  history, 
France  has  had  the  consciousness  of 
being  freed  from  the  oppressive  tyranny 
of  monarchical  and  priestly  despotism. 
Ten  years  have  passed  since  it  has 
shaken  off  the  last  fetters  that  bound  it 


162  HEROIC  FRANCE 

to  blind  obedience.  The  separation  of 
Church  and  State  released  France  from 
the  last  link  that  rivetted  her  to  feudal 
survivals  of  autocratic  authority. 

Under  these  novel  conditions  a  new 
man  has  grown  up  in  France.  The  slow, 
formative  process  that  has  been  going 
on  during  the  days  since  Sedan  has 
developed  individualism.  A  new  France 
has  been  forged.  Every  man  in  France 
now  stands  on  his  own  feet.  When 
he  shoulders  his  gun,  when  he  makes 
his  superb  dashes  at  the  enemy's  front, 
he  knows  why  and  for  whom  he  is 
fighting.  He  is  fighting  for  himself, 
and  not  for  a  king;  he  is  defending 
his  own  wife  and  children,  and  not  a 
king's  mistress;  he  is  crying  above  the 
roar  of  bullets,  "Vive  la  France!"  be- 
cause, at  last,  France  is  his  very 
own. 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  163 

The  various  processes  that  have  built 
up  this  new  type  of  Frenchmen  are,  a 
Republican  form  of  government;  the 
spread  of  socialism;  and  the  separation 
of  Church  and  State.  To  these  formative 
conditions  must  be  added  the  tremendous 
influences  attributable  to  compulsory 
education  in  the  schools,  and  the  elective 
education  of  the  press. 

The  educative  power  and  influence  of 
the  press  throughout  France  has  been 
one  of  the  strongest  bulwarks  of  the 
present  Republican  form  of  government. 
Every  Frenchman,  however  poor,  reads 
his  paper.  It  is  greatly  to  the  credit 
of  such  popular  newspapers  as  Le  Petit 
Journal,  Le  Petit  Parisien  and  others, 
costing  a  sou — thus  within  the  means 
of  the  very  poorest — that  this  daily 
education  of  French  boys  and  men  has 
on  the  whole  been  so  wholesome.  The 


164  HEROIC  FRANCE 

newspapers  have  been  builders  up  of  a 
world-wide  knowledge,  as  well  as  the 
planters  of  the  seed  of  patriotic  ardor. 
Socialists,  Anarchists  have  their  own 
more  revolutionary  press — as  is  well 
known.  But  such  is  the  power  for  good 
of  even  this  revolutionary  press  in 
France  in  a  crisis;  such  is  the  inherited 
instinct  for  order,  for  organized  solid- 
arity, that  at  a  "mot  d'order" — at  a 
word  of  command — those  masses  that 
seem  but  to  wait  for  the  waving  of  the 
torch  of  insurrection  to  fire  to  atoms 
the  whole  fabric  of  the  social  order,  can 
as  easily  be  lead  to  defend  it.  The 
Socialists'  unanimous  gathering  to  the 
support  of  the  Republican  appeal  to 
arms,  on  reading  Jaures'  last  article 
to  his  followers,  was  triumphant  proof 
of  the  power  of  the  press  to  awaken 
instantaneous  response. 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  165 

In  Germany  the  press  is  muzzled. 
There  are  all  the  processes  employed 
by  which  tyrannical  dictators  have  re- 
duced a  State  to  abject  authority.  The 
"Welt-fonds"  controls  the  press.  The 
German  press  is  a  government  organ; 
it  gives  the  news  of  the  world  as  it 
wishes  it  might  be;  it  reproduces  gov- 
ernment acts  magnified  to  splendid 
achievement.  The  contrast  between  the 
English,  French  and  American  accounts 
of  the  battles,  in  the  present  war,  and 
the  German  "communiques"  sufficiently 
proves  the  muzzling  process  employed 
in  the  so-called  "Reptile  Press."  Even 
this  controlled  Press  is  not  available 
to  all  classes  of  Germans.  To  secure 
daily  delivery  of  one's  newspaper,  a 
German  citizen  must  subscribe  to  his 
paper.  If  he  wishes  to  buy  a  sheet,  he 
must  seek  one  at  the  cafes.  How  many 


166  HEROIC  FRANCE 

of  the  "men  in  the  street"  can  enter  a 
well  lighted  cafe  in  shabby  clothes 
with  only  the  few  "phennigs"  in  his 
pocket  with  which  to  buy  his  news- 
paper? One  easily  understands  the 
meaning  of  the  oft-repeated  remarks 
of  the  common  German  soldier  taken 
prisoner:  "We  did  not  know  what 
the  war  was  about." 

The  mistaken  policy  of  all  tyrannical 
forms  of  government  is  the  same — to  use 
the  lie  according  to  the  Jesuit  formula— 
that  the  end  justifies  the  means.  This  sys- 
tem was  possible  under  older  monarchical 
conditions.  In  our  modern  world  the 
lie  is  a  weak  screen  and  a  broken  weed. 
The  cable,  the  telegraph  and  the  war 
correspondent,  the  latter  the  contemp- 
oraneous historian — writing  history  as 
fast  as  it  is  being  made — all  these 
modern  agencies  make  truth  the  best, 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  167 

as  well  as  the  surest  victorious 
policy. 

The  progressive  transformation  of  the 
national  character  in  France  has  been 
especially  noticeable  in  the  peasant  and 
working  classes,  and  in  the  lower  and 
middle  bourgeoisie, — in  that  world  of 
Frenchmen  which  makes  up  the  more 
vital,  vigorous  part  of  the  nation. 

Each  and  every  one  of  these  factors 
has  been  a  contributary  force  in  the 
development  of  these  modern  French- 
men. In  the  laboring  class  especially,  the 
new  ideals  have  permeated  the  whole 
body  of  workers, — ideals  that  have  taken, 
it  is  true,  a  more  or  less  socialistic, 
revolutionary  form.  Socialism  has  taught 
the  man  who  toils  his  power,  and  the 
power  that  comes  from  organization. 
But  all  Frenchmen  are  not  socialists. 
The  best  citizens  among  French  work- 


168  HEROIC  FRANCE 

ingmen  are  too  intelligent  to  be  led 
blindfolded  into  pitfalls  painstakingly 
prepared  by  that  leisure  class  among 
socialists — the  leaders — who  toil  a  little 
so  as  not  to  spin,  but  whose  toil  is  of 
the  easy -chair  order. 

What  socialistic  doctrines  were  worth, 
as  far  as  the  non-combative  principle 
goes,  has  been  proved  by  the  on-rush  of 
the  whole  body  of  believers,  both 
in  France  and  Germany,  to  join  in  a 
war  of  defence  in  France,  and  in  one  of 
the  most  stupendous  wars  for  pure 
conquest  and  lust  of  power  in  Germany. 

Modern  ideals  and  aspirations  are 
moulding  throughout  the  world  the 
whole  social  fabric.  A  democratic 
form  of  government  and  the  spread  of 
the  doctrine  of  individualism  have  given 
a  new  bent,  new  aims,  a  wholly  novel 
outlook,  to  French  minds  and  character. 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  169 

The  modern  Frenchman  is  imbued  with 
the  consciousness  of  belonging  to  him- 
self— of  being  a  free  man.  For  the 
first  time  in  his  long,  historic  experience, 
he  realizes  he  stands  on  his  own  feet; 
he  neither  wears  the  shackles  of  the 
mediaeval  vassal,  nor  is  he  dependent 
on  court  nor  king.  He  is  a  voter. 
Below  all  the  effervescence  of  the  na- 
tional love  of  parading  its  woes;  below 
all  the  disturbing  currents  of  political 
animosities,  the  slow,  steady  process  of 
the  evolution  of  individualism  has  given 
birth  to  the  modern  Frenchman.  Some 
of  these  newer  conceptions  of  life  are 
not,  perhaps,  as  poetic,  nor  are  they  as 
picturesque,  if  looked  at  from  an  aesthetic 
point  of  view,  as  were  some  of  the  lost 
dreams  that  have  made  the  figures  of 
heroes,  of  martyrs,  and  of  saints  who 
crowd  the  pages  of  French  history  as 


170  HEROIC  FRANCE 

thick  as  do  the  thousands  of  statues 
that  people  her  still  unmutilated  Cathe- 
drals. Yet  it  is  in  this,  the  Frenchman's 
progress  in  measuring  the  values  that 
count  in  life,  in  a  higher  conception  of 
duty,  of  responsibility,  and  in  purer 
ideals  among  the  people,  that  some  of 
the  more  famous  among  modern  French 
writers  have  found  their  material, — 
Rene  Bazin  in  "Le  Ble  qui  Leve,"  Barres 
in  his  numerous  novels,  and  Brieux  in 
his  strong  problems  plays,  such  as  "Les 
Remplacantes,"  "La  Robe  Rouge,"  "Les 
A  varies,"  etc. 

To  the  immense  and  beneficent  in- 
fluences of  its  purer  literature,  and  par- 
ticularly to  the  press  throughout  France, 
one  must  add  compulsory  education  as 
one  of  the  chief  factors  in  developing 
French  mind  and  character.  The  stride 
in  the  progress  made  throughout  all 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  171 

classes  in  France  has  been  prodigious 
since  the  separation  of  church  and  state. 
The  powerful,  repressive  influence  of  the 
clergy  on  liberal  education  was  then 
removed.  New  ways  and  methods  im- 
mediately came  into  vogue;  oral  lectures 
as  opposed  to  routine  recitations  became 
popular.  Children  instead  of  being 
kept  in  school  for  long  hours,  were 
brought  by  mothers  or  governesses  to 
classes  for  certain  lessons  only,  to  which 
they  arrived  fresh,  eager  for  competitive 
recitation. 

The  novelty  of  hearing  serious  and 
learned  Professors  of  the  Sorbonne,  of 
the  Institut,  men  of  science,  historians, 
renowned  actors  and  literati  lecturing 
to  vast  audiences  at  the  theatres,  at 
lecture  halls,  such  as  Le  Foyet  and 
L'Hotel  des  Annales,  to  young  and  old, 
— such  lectures  delightfully  diversified 


172  HEROIC  FRANCE 

by  actors,  actresses  and  danseuses,  to 
illustrate  historical  episodes  or  the  works 
of  poets  and  even  novelists,  have  done 
more  to  develop  the  mind  of  the  growing 
generation  than  has  ever  been  accom- 
plished before  in  France. 

These  novel  processes  have  stimulated 
the  naturally  quick  French  mind,  in- 
creased its  powers  of  reasoning,  and 
enlarged  the  range  of  criticism  and 
observation. 

There  has  thus  been  an  extraordinary 
rebound  noticeable,  throughout  France, 
once  the  pent-up  energies  of  its  people 
were  released  from  certain  old-world 
traditions  and  tyrannies.  French  char- 
acter has  proved  also  its  indestructible 
quality.  The  forces  that  had  made  it 
great  under  so  many  kingships,  that  had 
survived  so  many  disastrous  reverses, 
revolutions  and  foreign  invasions,  which 


MODERN  FRENCHMEN  173 

only  recently  have  re-acted  from  the 
dispiriting  effects  of  Fashoda,  from  the 
scandals  of  the  Dreyfus,  the  Humbert 
and  the  Caillaux  trials,  were  forces  as 
potential  as  ever. 

"Le  grand  secret  de  duree  qui   fut   la 
France,"  is  her  secret  still. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Some  Racial  Traits 

IT  is  no  part  of  the  design  of  this 
short  book  to  enlarge  on  the  long 
stretch  of  historical  development  of 
the  two  thousand  years  of  historic  life 
during  which  France  has  been  working 
out  its  destiny.     Yet,  rightly  to  under- 
stand the  structure  of  modern  French 
character,  to  enable  one  even  to  guess  at 
the  origin  of  some  of  those  finer  qualities 
which,  like  the  fire  that  lies  hidden  in 
embers,  suddenly  flash  forth    to  amaze 
and  delight  an  admiring  world,  at  least 
a  superficial  survey  of  some  of  the  forces 
174 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  175 

that  have  forged  the  contrasting  traits 
that  puzzle  foreigners  must  be  made 
known. 

How  little  the  foreigner  realizes  that, 
in  meeting  one  Frenchman,  he  is  not 
meeting  all  Frenchmen.  The  best  known 
type  is,  admittedly,  the  Parisian,  whether 
he  be  nobleman  or  shopkeeper,  petit 
rentier  or  workman.  Yet,  below  the 
Parisian  veneer  of  acquired  grace  and 
good  manner,  of  glib  wit,  of  flippant 
cynicism,  let  a  crisis  come,  and  the 
veneer  cracks:  one  suddenly  confronts 
a  new  man.  The  Gascon  becomes  gar- 
rulous; the  Burgundian  truculent;  the 
Breton  mulish  or  recklessly  brave;  the 
Provencale  fiery  and  tempestuous;  the 
Norman  silent — yet  ready  armed  for 
any  adventure;  and  the  man  of  the 
north,  stubborn,  aggressive,  capable  of 
Flemish  endurance. 


176  HEROIC  FRANCE 

French  literature  has  reflected  these 
various  hereditary  strains  and  charac- 
teristics. Who  could  mistake  Guy  de 
Maupassant's  Normans  for  Daudet's 
"Tartarin  de  Tarascon?"  Flaubert's 
"Madame  de  Bovary"  would  have  found 
no  prototype  in  priest-ridden,  Catholic 
Brittany.  Bazin  would  never  have 
sought  in  the  Midi  his  heroines.  And 
Antole  France's  "Le  Lys  Rouge," — that 
delicate  Parisian  passion-flower — could 
only  have  bloomed  in  the  hot-house 
warmth  of  Parisian  salons. 

The  various  ethnological  strains  that 
give  to  each  province  in  France  its  racial, 
distinctive  note,  help  to  solidify  the 
nation.  Variety,  like  competition,  works 
for  intensive  effort.  When  a  nation  is 
composed  of  many  diverse  elements,  it 
is  like  a  mother  that  has  given  birth  to 
strong  men.  If  men  are  strong,  they 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  177 

will  not  all  be  of  the  same  family  likeness, 
but  they  will  each  and  all  speak  the 
same  tongue;  at  their  mother's  knee 
they  have  all  learnt  the  same  prayers; 
and  when  they  separate,  their  eyes  turn 
homewards  to  the  central  home  fires,— 
to  the  source  from  which  they  drew 
their  breath. 

France  has  had,  in  turn,  to  amalga- 
mate the  Celt,  the  Gaul,  the  Frank, 
the  Roman  and  the  Norman.  The 
five  hundred  years  of  Roman  civilization 
superimposed  a  second  base  on  the 
earlier  Gallic  foundation.  Rome  was 
to  unify  Gaul,  giving  her  a  common 
language,  a  common  law,  a  commercial 
system,  a  unified  coinage,  as  well  as 
the  peace  and  security  and  the  wonderful 
organizing  system  the  Empire  brought 
to  all  her  conquered  countries.  The 
best  postal  system  in  the  Europe  of 


178  HEROIC  FRANCE 

Caesar's  day  was  the  one  established 
by  the  Conqueror,  to  keep  him  in 
constant  contact  with  Rome.  The 
superb  Roman  roads,  still  traceable 
in  our  days,  built  by  conquered  Gauls, 
taught  Romanized  Gaul  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  highways  over  rivers— 
the  earlier,  more  facile  means  of  com- 
munication. The  Roman  cities  and  their 
splendor  and  luxury  were  models  to  be 
copied  and  improved  upon,  by  the  race 
of  born  artists  who,  after  centuries  of 
a  worship  of  mysterious  Druidical  deities 
and,  later,  of  Greco-Roman  gods,  could 
turn  temples  erected  in  honor  of  Venus  and 
Apollo  into  the  early  Christian  churches. 
The  base  on  which  rests  French  char- 
acter is  thus  proved  to  be  composed 
of  innumerable  racial  elements.  The 
varied  contradictions  we  see  in  that 
character  can  only  be  explained  and 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  179 

understood  by  even  a  cursory  knowledge 
of  the  racial  inheritances  bequeathed 
to  it.  Who  would  imagine  that  an  in- 
vasion of  German  Franks  gave  their 
name  to  France  as  early  as  the  second 
half  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.?  This 
race,  though  of  Celtic  origin,  closely 
resembled  the  German  type;  it  was 
blue-eyed,  tall  and  fair.  The  shorter- 
statured,  dark-eyed  natives  the  Iberians 
and  Ligurians  found  in  possession  of  the 
soil,  the  Franks  subdued,  but  did  not 
wholly  supplant.  The  main  body  of 
these  conquering  Franks  super-imposed 
their  habits  and  customs  on  the  natives. 
Later,  it  was  these  two  races,  the  Gauls 
and  Franks,  as  well  as  the  Iberians  and 
Ligurians,  Rome  had  to  fight,  when 
Caesar  came. 

The    prolonged    survival   of    some    of 
these  ancient  races  which,  each  in  turn, 


180  HEROIC  FRANCE 

conquered  portions  of  the  then  vast 
region  known  as  Galli,  is  proved  in  the 
names  of  Gascons  adopted  by  the 
Aquitani, — Gascon  giving  birth  to 
Basques,  the  latter  a  term  applied  to 
the  Aquitani  who,  in  the  lower  Pyrenees, 
have  preserved  almost  unchanged,  a 
race  and  language  untainted  by  Roman 
influences. 

The  base  of  French  life  and  character 
already  rested  on  a  secure  foundation 
when  Rome  came  to  give  her  five 
hundred  years  of  Roman  civilization. 

When  Caesar,  lying  in  his  silken, 
curtained  litter,  scanned  between  the 
open  slits  the  country  he  was  to  seal 
with  the  stamp  of  Roman  conquest, 
his  eyes  must  have  opened  wide — 
Roman  eyes  though  they  were.  Let  us 
lift  a  corner  of  the  curtain  that  veiled 
the  brilliant  summer  sun  for  Caesar's 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  181 

curious,  critical  gaze,  as  he  looked  out 
on  the  France  of  his  day — not  yet 
France.  The  Gaul  he  saw  and  conquered 
was  one  vast  forest,  with  occasional 
clearings.  In  these  clearings  were  em- 
bryonic towns,  called  oppida.  One  re- 
members Cicero's  contemptuous  fling  "Is 
anything  more  hideous  than  a  Gallic  op- 
pidum?"  Yet  in  those  despised,  primitive 
towns  we  find  rather  a  surprising  degree  of 
comfort  and  luxury,  as  well  as  a  rude  pro- 
tective strength  against  outside  foes. 

Certain  survivals  in  French  family 
life  have  been  handed  down  from  the 
dwellers  of  those  aedificia.  Those  isolated 
dwellings  were  usually  situated  beside 
a  stream,  close  to  the  open  forest.  The 
Frenchman's  love  of  the  open  air,  his 
passion  for  dining,  for  sipping  his  demi- 
tasse  under  the  open  sky,  was  thus 
one  of  his  earliest  inheritances. 


182  HEROIC  FRANCE 

The  state  of  this  earlier  Gallic  society 
was  patriarchal.  One  realizes  how  strong 
is  the  survival  of  this  system  in  the 
solidarity  of  family  life  in  the  France 
of  our  day.  Those  who  do  not  know 
France  flippantly  assert  her  indifference 
to  the  family  tie.  Those  of  us  who 
have  lived  among  French  men  and 
women  realize  that  the  common  re- 
proach of  there  being  no  family  life  in 
France  should  rather  be  directed  to  the 
fact  that,  in  many  cases,  there  is  nothing 
else.  Each  family  in  France  is  a  little 
tribe  unto  itself.  This  close  knitting 
of  the  family  tie  accounts  for  much  of 
the  narrow,  insular,  provincial  point  of 
view. 

The  dot  system  had  been  handed 
down  from  those  early  Gallic  days. 
Already  women  had  attained  to  a  digni- 
fied place  in  that  ancient  family  life. 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  183 

She  was  not  bought — she  brought  with 
her  her  dot.  She  could  even  then  be 
considered,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  proprie- 
tress, since  her  husband  must  give,  as 
an  equivalent  for  her  dot,  his  share  of 
his  fortune  in  flocks.  In  virtue  of  such 
a  marriage  contract,  women  exercised 
an  indirect  influence  in  the  family  or, 
by  virtue  of  her  rank  or  possessions, 
became  a  political  factor. 

The  modern  French  passion  for  dress, 
and  a  taste  for  combining  contrasting 
colors  was  already  prevalent,  even  in 
Caesar's  day.  The  bright  tints  in  women's 
dress  recently  brought  into  fashion  by 
the  Balkan  wars  give  us  a  hint  of  the 
rich  carracalla — a  sort  of  blouse;  of  the 
striped  embroidered  sagum,  or  mantles, 
sometimes  worn  with  a  huge  buckle, 
dropping  from  the  shoulder.  The  scar- 
lets, purples,  delicate  pinks  and  mustard 


184  HEROIC  FRANCE 

yellows  of  these  garments  were  further 
enriched  by  gold  and  metallic  ornaments. 
From  arms  and  necks — necks  browned 
in  the  sun,  the  round,  thick  necks  of  a 
young,  vigorous  race — as  from  fingers, 
flashed  the  soft  gleam,  the  darting  fires 
of  priceless  jewels. 

As  though  conscious  of  how  taking 
would  be  the  record,  as  a  last  decorative 
adjunct  to  this  somewhat  barbaric  but 
intensely  picturesque  apparel,  the  Gauls 
preceded  the  French  coiffeur  and  his 
more  than  willing  customers,  in  a  pref- 
erence for  blond  hair.  It  was  the  Gallic 
fashion  to  wash  one's  hair  in — chalk! 
It  appears  a  blond  tint  can  be  produced, 
indefinitely,  by  the  constant  use  of 
this  element,  if  properly  mixed  with 
water.  I  should  not,  however,  advise 
any  over-zealous  imitators  of  early  Gallic 
tastes  to  follow  the  recipe.  This  care- 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  185 

fully  cultivated,  tinted  hair  was  worn 
long, — hair  that,  when  fighting,  streamed 
in  the  wind  like  a  horse's  mane. 

Before  Rome  came  to  give  her  richer 
base  of  a  refined  and  elaborate  civiliza- 
tion to  the  nation  that  was  later  to 
perpetuate  it — the  torch  handed  from 
one  Latin  hand  to  the  hand  that  raises 
it  aloft  to-day — already  Gaul  was  known 
for  its  artistic  productions.  Industrial 
arts  had,  indeed,  made  the  name  of 
Gallic  taste  and  skill  attain  to  such  a 
degree  of  perfection  as  to  make  their 
ceramics,  their  working  of  gold,  silver, 
copper  and  even  iron,  renowned.  The 
great  Gallic  specialty,  however,  was  their 
admirable  art  of  enameling.  These  clever 
Gauls  had  also  brought  to  such  a  degree 
of  finish  their  knowledge  of  tinning 
they  were  enabled  to  make  their  copper 
vessels  shine,  as  though  wrought  of 


186  HEROIC  FRANCE 

pure  silver.  These  products  were  sought 
for,  even  before  the  Roman  con- 
quest, by  every  Roman  amateur  of 
taste. 

In  our  day,  the  soldier  has  the  instinct 
to  copy  birds  or  insects  thus  attempting 
to  reproduce  the  colors  of  nature  the 
better  to  utilize  nature  as  a  protective 
element.  But  the  Gauls  went  to  battle 
either  stark — or  in  Oriental  magnificence; 
their  art  must  be  the  servant  of  their 
military  splendor.  When  the  war 
chariots,  massed  in  solid  ranks,  flew 
towards  the  Roman  foe,  the  silver  wheels 
of  the  cars  gleaming  under  the  strong 
noon  sun  so  blinded  the  eyes  of  the 
enemy  as  to  make  them  blink.  These 
silver  wheels,  it  is  recorded,  were  beauti- 
fully chiseled,  as  were  the  jewels  of  the 
period,  and  the  jewelled  ornaments  of 
the  soldiers. 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  187 

If  Rome  brought  along  with  its  amphi- 
theatres that  delight  in  spectacular  rep- 
resentation which  has  never  died  out, 
in  France,  making  the  French  Theatre 
today  the  most  vital  and  fructifying 
dramatic  element  in  the  modern  world, 
the  secrets  Rome  stole  from  Athens' 
learning,  philosophy  and  art,  she  whisp- 
ered, and  then  trumpetted,  into  France's 
eager  ear.  Once  the  Winged  Victory 
had  crossed  the  Alps  bearing  on  her 
wings  the  golden-dusted  pollen  of  Greek 
art  and  literature,  she  found  a  soil 
congenial  to  the  continuation  and  perpet- 
uation of  her  treasured  knowledge. 

Five  centuries  after  Caesar's  genius 
had  begun  the  transformation  of  warring 
tribes  into  the  nucleus  of  a  nation,  the 
Normans  were  to  sail  up  the  Seine  to 
have  their  rude  eyes  dazzled  by  the 
gleam  of  Paris, — that  seemed  to  them 


188  HEROIC  FRANCE 

as  though  set  in  a  coronal  of  gold.  To 
the  France  of  that  day,  these  Northmen 
were  to  bring,  in  their  turn,  a  sturdier 
spirit  of  high  adventure,  their  solid 
qualities  of  frugality,  of  industry,  and 
their  passion  for  conquest.  They  were 
to  give  to  England  a  Norman  king,  as 
they  also  carried  Norman  valour  as  far 
south  as  the  walls  of  Sicily,  there  to  set 
in  the  gleaming  mosaics  of  its  cathedrals, 
the  saints  and  martyrs  of  the  hierarchy 
of  Heaven. 

The  later,  shaping  influences  of  the 
Crusades — that  tidal  wave  of  wider  know- 
ledge and  wider  being  brought  about 
by  extensive  travel  to  foreign  lands 
no  Frenchman  of  the  Middle  Ages  would 
have  dreamed  of  undertaking,  unless 
under  the  impulse  of  passionate  re- 
ligious conviction; — and  later  the  elevat- 
ing, refining  effects  of  chivalry,  all  these 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  189 

influences  prepared  the  nation  for  its 
great  awakening  to  Renaissance  enlight- 
enment. 

The  Bourbons  brought  the  stultifying 
principle  of  the  divine  right  of  kings 
to  a  climax.  The  whole  history  of 
France  since  the  reign  of  Louis  XV  has 
been  the  struggle  of  the  people  to  crush 
that  doctrine.  If  she  lost  some  of  her 
power  in  Europe  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  owing  to  the  disas- 
trous effects  of  the  Austrian  Succession 
and  the  Seven  Years'  War,  out  of  her 
defeats  she  was  to  wrench  the  golden 
secret  of  a  new  force — of  a  new  ennobling 
principle.  Her  philosophers,  in  the  latter 
years  of  this  eighteenth  century  of  an 
eclipse  of  power,  were  to  dream  a  new, 
a  wonderful  dream,  one  France  and 
America  were  the  first  to  prove  might 
be  turned  into  reality.  The  Encyclo- 


190  HEROIC  FRANCE 

pedists  and  Voltaire  and  Rousseau 
were  to  preach  the  astounding  creed  that 
a  people  might  rise  against  a  king,  that 
priests  might  find  their  power  a  broken 
weed,  and  that  a  return  to  nature  was 
the  salvation  of  those  who  had  lived  in 
the  hot-house  tryanny  of  courts. 

The  French  Revolution  that  was  to 
inflame  all  Europe  in  a  general  conflag- 
ration produced  a  constructive  genius. 

Napoleon  rose  out  of  the  flames  of 
the  Revolution,  to  re-establish  order,  to 
introduce  a  renewed  security,  and  to 
dream  his  dream  of  an  old-world  conquest 
of  Europe.  Since  his  fall,  France  has 
been  living  under  successive  govern- 
ments, apparently  suffering  from  periodi- 
cal attacks  of  political  instability. 

In  point  of  fact,  her  real  unity  as  a 
nation  dates  from  before  and  after 
Napoleon's  reign.  France  has  been 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  191 

steadily  growing  to  mature  knowledge 
of  herself  and  her  own  needs  and  wants 
since  1793.  Her  development  in  self- 
consciousness  began  with  the  firing  of 
the  Bastile.  She  knew  then,  as  she 
knows  now,  exactly  what  she  wanted. 
The  opening  of  those  prison  doors  was 
significant,  terrifying  to  kingship  and 
to  priest-craft  dominion.  The  soul  of 
France  was  born  at  last,  and  that  soul 
proposed  to  be  freed  from  all  forms  of 
oppression,  tyranny,  and  unlawful  rule. 
You  may  read  the  histories  of  the 
successive  reigns,  revolutions,  and  politi- 
cal upheavals  that  have  convulsed  France 
since  Napoleon  went  to  end  his  days  on 
that  sun-scorched  island  in  the  seas  to 
the  present  day,  when  Socialists  and 
Radicals  have  been  fighting  to  protect 
their  own  soil  and  their  wives  and 
children  against  Prussian  military  de- 


192  HEROIC  FRANCE 

spotism,  and  the  history  of  France  is 
just  that — the  determination  of  the  whole 
French  nation  to  be  freed  from  any  form 
of  oppression. 

In  spite  of  the  battle  waged  between 
Combists  and  the  clergy,  between  those 
in  favor  of  compulsory  non-religious 
education,  and  the  Catholic's  clamoring 
for  at  least  a  recognition  of  Deity  in 
the  common  schools,  France  as  a  nation 
has  gained  immeasurably  from  the  sep- 
aration of  her  church  and  state.  In  the 
end  the  clergy  will  find  their  own  status, 
among  all  classes  of  Frenchmen,  will  also 
have  been  greatly  improved.  The  present 
war  will  inaugurate  a  new  area;  it  has, 
indeed,  already  seen  the  miracle  accom- 
plished of  a  universal  revival  of  genuine 
religious  feeling  throughout  France. 
The  Catholic  religion,  of  all  religions 
in  the  world,  is  the  one  peculiarly  suited 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  193 

to  French  character.  Its  pomp  and 
splendor  appeal  to  the  Frenchman's  de- 
light in  beauty — to  the  sensuous  side 
of  his  nature,  as  its  wonderful  organiza- 
tion delights  his  sense  of  orderliness. 
Authority,  divested  of  despotic  power, 
is  a  force,  also,  every  Frenchman  re- 
spects— he  who  for  thousands  of  years 
has  lived  under  authority. 

The  cry  of  indignation  that  rang  up 
throughout  the  ranks  of  believing  Cath- 
olics when  the  law  was  passed  compelling 
priests  to  serve  their  term  in  the  Army, 
should  now  be  turned  into  a  paean. 
The  courage,  the  bravery  displayed  by 
the  clergy  serving  in  the  ranks,  their 
members  fronting  death  in  the  trenches 
or  as  ambulance  nurses  along  the  fire 
zone,  administering  the  Sacrament  to 
dying  comrades  one  moment,  to  shoulder 
the  rifle  the  next, — such  proofs  of  mag- 


194  HEROIC  FRANCE 

nificent  heroism  will  accomplish  results 
which  the  Socialists,  in  their  short- 
sighted fanaticism,  never  dreamt  could 
come  to  pass.  The  fighting  priest  will 
reconquer  his  lost  prestige.  He  is  the 
brother-in-arms  who  lifts  the  sacrament 
above  his  musket.  He  is  the  visible 
embodiment  of  that  church  in  which 
every  fighting  Frenchman  had  made  his 
First  Communion,  in  which  he  has  knelt 
in  prayer  by  his  mother's  side  as  a  lad, 
in  which  he  was  married,  and  through 
whose  ministration,  if  he  lives  to  return 
to  the  home  parish,  he  will  be  buried. 
He  may  have  turned  scoffer;  may  have 
accepted  the  modern  creeds  of  ill- 
digested,  semi-atheistic  ideas;  when  front- 
ing death,  he  turns  as  instinctively  to 
the  priest  beside  him,  comrade  and 
friend  now,  one  sharing  the  same  agony 
of  immobility  in  the  same  narrow  spaces, 


SOME  RACIAL  TRAITS  195 

the  same  horrors  of  life  in  the  trenches, 
the  same  appalling  possibility  of  capture, 
mutilation,  or  quick  death, — to  this  form- 
erly, perhaps,  hated  priest  the  most 
violent  anti-clerical  will  turn,  as  a  child 
seeks  its  mother's  arms. 

The  Socialists  never  knew  in  truth 
what  weapons  they  were  forging  for 
future  use  among  the  clergy  when  they 
made  the  priests  into  soldiers.  After 
working,  suffering,  starving,  shivering, 
fighting  and  agonizing  side  by  side,  there 
will  emerge  a  new  solidarity,  a  better 
understanding,  a  more  intimate  brother- 
hood, between  all  ranks  of  both  clergy 
and  the  men  in  the  army. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

The  Contrast  in  Ideals 

AMONG  the    surprises   the  present 
war  waging  in  Europe   has  given 
to    the    world,    not    the    least    in 
importance    is    the    revelation    of   these 
various     unsuspected    forces    latent    in 
French    character.     That  France  could 
meet  a  crisis  with  courage  and  dignity, 
not  even  those  nations  who  denied  her 
possessing   an   ideal    of    moral    conduct 
could    doubt.      Her    varied     gifts,    her 
taste — that    dictates    in  matters  of  art 
and  dress;    her    literary    superiority    in 
point  of  style;    and  her  many  brilliant 
196 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        197 

contributions  to  science  and  medicine, — 
all  these  have  been  generously  conceded. 
Her  homelier  virtues  of  thrift,  her  prodi- 
gious industry,  her  temperance  in  living, 
have  been  frequently  presented  as  models 
for  those  whose  less  disciplined  natures 
made  them  rather  critics  than  creators 
of  national  prosperity. 

The  world,  however,  as  a  world,  has 
not  been  as  seriously  interested  in  French 
virtue  as  in  her  supposed  deflection  from 
the  straight  path.  Paris,  that  stands 
for  all  France — to  most  foreigners — has 
been  judged  as  Voltaire  judged  Paris — 
Cashmire;  the  character  of  its  inhabit- 
ants has  been  summed  up  as  being 
gracious,  amiable,  light-hearted,  as  ser- 
iously occupied  with  bagatelles  as  other 
people  are  with  important  affairs.  Above 
all  else,  the  whole  French  nation  has 
been  indicted  for  pursuing  pleasure  to 


198  HEROIC  FRANCE 

the  fatal  point  of  precipitating  the  mo- 
ment of  its  national  decadence.  For 
a  decade  or  more  not  only  her  sister 
nations  and  the  Americas,  but  France 
itself,  have  been  loudly  proclaiming 
France's  obvious  and  inevitable  degenera- 
tion. 

In  the  fortnight  preceding  the  out- 
break of  the  war  France  did,  indeed, 
appear  to  present  to  the  eyes  of  the 
world  the  spectacle  of  a  nation  tearing 
at  its  own  vitals.  With  a  frankness 
unmatched  by  that  of  any  other  people, 
Frenchmen  expose  their  very  worst  side 
in  moments  of  political  crisis.  They  let 
the  whole  world  into  the  secret  of  their 
family  quarrels;  they  not  only  indecently 
expose  the  household  linen  to  public 
view,  but  seemingly  delight  in  dilating 
on  the  rents  and  tears,  even  to  the  point 
of  drawing  public  attention  to  the  in- 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        199 

ferior  quality  of  the  article.  No  people 
in  the  world  indulge  in  self-abuse  as 
do  the  French.  Exposure  of  national 
mistakes,  peculiarities,  absurdities,  or 
contradictions  presented  by  the  national 
character,  stimulate  the  analytical  faculty; 
and  the  Frenchman  is  yet  to  be  born 
who  would  not  sacrifice  the  patriot  to 
the  critic — in  words.  In  moments  of 
action  the  critic  dies  of  inanition;  the 
hero  rises  from  his  ashes. 

This  passion  for  caustic  self-criticism 
is  one  of  the  many  reasons  for  the  all 
but  universal  misjudgment  meeted  out 
to  the  Frenchman.  The  world  is  not 
yet  sufficiently  old  not  to  believe  what 
it  hears.  When,  therefore,  France, 
through  its  press,  its  theatre,  its  literature 
and  its  Montmartre  exhibitions,  pro- 
claims the  degree  of  corruption  and  the 
period  of  decadence  in  morals  it  has 


200  HEROIC  FRANCE 

attained,  all  the  world  comes  to  the 
funeral. 

What  centuries  of  religious  develop- 
ment of  conduct  can  produce,  the  Mussel- 
man  proves  to  us:  "Our  ideal  is  to  die 
in  battle"  was  the  outburst  of. a  Radjut 
recently  landed  at  Marseilles.  "If  only 
the  war  is  not  over,"  he  added,  with  a 
hopeful  smile.  A  Japanese  does  not  see 
the  Moslem's  immediate  reward  of  hour- 
is  awaiting  him  at  the  gate  of  Paradise; 
he,  being  of  the  cult  of  Shinto,  considers 
the  supreme  bliss  to  be  able  to  sacrifice 
his  life  for  his  Mikado. 

The  German  soldier  is  neither  a  Mos- 
lem nor  a  believer  in  Shintoism.  He 
has  not  had  the  advantage  of  long 
centuries  of  training.  Yet,  under  the 
new  system  of  German  methods  for 
the  making  over  of  citizens  into  soldiers 
since  1870,  the  systematic,  educational 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS       201 

development  of  Germany  from  a  peace- 
loving,  sober,  home-abiding  people,  into 
a  nation  intoxicated  with  the  heady  wine 
of  "weltpolitik"  has  startled  Europe, 
America, — the  whole  world  into  amazed 
surprise.  It  is,  perhaps,  rather  Germany 
who  should  be  amazed  at  the  world's 
blindness, — at  the  dense  stupidity  of 
other  nations.  For  has  it  not  been  a 
proof  of  extraordinary  dullness,  of  de- 
fective vision  in  others,  not  to  be  able 
to  see  the  very  plain  writing  on  the  wall 
Germany  has  been  openly  spelling  out 
for  all  the  world  to  read?  For  forty -four 
years  Germany's  policy,  national,  in- 
ternational, colonial,  educational,  mili- 
tary, has  had  but  one  definite  aim, — to 
weld  her  huge  Empire  into  one  mag- 
nificent machine.  As  has  been  well  said, 
"We  see  that  Germany  .... 
is  the  most  triumphant  example  of 


202  HEROIC  FRANCE 

science  and  brains  applied  to  state 
building." 

The  system  has  been  tried  before.  It 
was  effectively  introduced  on  a  smaller 
scale  in  Sparta.  All  male  Sparta  was 
in  the  army.  We  know  the  results  of 
that  war-like  spirit  on  the  destinies  of 
Greece.  After  Athens  lost  her  fleet  in 
Syracusan  waters,  the  military  nations 
of  Sparta  first,  and  then  Macedonia, 
conquered  Athens.  These  invasions  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  Roman  conquest. 

A  military  nation  has  no  use  for,  nor 
can  she  really  understand,  the  moral 
effects  of  ideals  of  conduct.  Yet  Sparta 
produced  no  Kaiser — passionless,  relent- 
less, more  cruel  than  Nero,  since  he 
has  had  the  developments  in  humanitari- 
anism  of  two  thousand  years  of  accumu- 
lated teaching  in  the  lessons  of  mercy; 
nor  did  Greece  hand  down  to  us  the 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        203 

brutal  philosophies  of  a  Neitzsche  or  a 
Treitschke.  We  had  to  wait  these  two 
thousand  years  for  a  Teutonic  civiliza- 
tion, supposed  to  be  founded  on  a 
Christian  basis,  to  produce  three  such 
cold-blooded  disciplinarians. 

Germany  has  already  been  indicted  at 
the  bar  of  the  world  as  she  will  be  here- 
after decried  by  future  historians,  not 
only  for  the  crimes  she  has  committed  in 
defiance  of  the  laws  of  humanity  and  the 
rules  that  govern  modern  warfare,  but 
for  her  imperfect  civilization. 

The  supreme  test  of  the  civilization  of 
a  people  is  the  degree  of  refinement  it  has 
reached  in  manners,  in  its  power  of  self- 
control,  in  its  treatment  of  women,  in  its 
methods  of  warfare,  and  in  its  sense  of 
justice.  Judged  by  the  above  standards 
Germany  presents  herself  as  inferior  to 
almost  every  nation  with  any  pretentions 


204  HEROIC  FRANCE 

to  culture.  Her  manners  have  long  been 
noticeably  coarse,  have  even  grown  more 
and  more  offensive  since  her  develop- 
ment as  a  military  power;  her  treatment 
of  women  in  her  own  realm  is  mediaeval, 
since  the  subordination  of  woman  is 
necessary  to  state  needs  and  state  re- 
quirements; the  German  deficiency  in 
self-control  was  proven  in  the  lustful 
orgie  of  Lou  vain,  in  their  barbarous, 
primitive  gloating  in  sheer  senseless  bru- 
tality and  in  the  rapture  of  killing  for  the 
sake  of  killing.  Violence,  barbarity  and 
cruelty  can  never  be  considered  as  proofs 
of  culture.  Germany's  deficiencies  help 
us  as  have  no  other  models,  to  define  ex- 
actly what  we  understand  by  civilization. 
We  know  and  feel  France  to  be  almost 
completely  civilized,  without  the  necess- 
ity imposed  upon  us  to  define  the  charac- 
ter of  her  civilization.  We  had  vaguely 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        205 

imagined  Germany,  were  the  test  applied, 
would  stand  among  the  other  leading 
civilized  European  states.  Her  intel- 
lectual achievements,  her  scientific  at- 
tainments, her  love  of  art,  her  musical 
supremacy,  and  her  prodigious  talent  for 
organization  as  well  as  her  industrial  ex- 
pansion marked  her  as  standing  all  but 
first  among  the  progressive  nations. 

The  supreme  test  of  the  passions 
aroused  by  war  have  proved  that  the  soul 
of  Germany  was  still  the  soul  of  the  sav- 
age. And  it  is  the  soul  and  not  the  mind 
that  rules  in  the  crisis  of  passionate 
action. 

The  systematic  training  that  has  been 
imposed  upon  the  whole  German  people 
from  childhood,  from  the  kindergarten 
to  the  barrack,  has  carefully  nursed  the 
primitive,  elemental  savagery  that  lies 
lurking  in  the  dim  recesses  of  the  soul  of 


206  HEROIC  FRANCE 

all  of  us.  The  test  of  our  civilized  state 
is  how  completely  we  have  crushed  that 
beast.  It  has  been  the  policy  of  the  Ger- 
man War  Lords  to  cultivate  German  bru- 
tality— and  to  give  it  a  new  name — 
Kultur. 

The  indifference  of  the  world  at  large 
of  late  years  to  German  literature 
accounts  for  much  of  the  want  of  en- 
lightened perception  of  the  processes 
going  on  in  German  life  and  thought. 
Since  Carlyle,  there  has  been  no  prophet 
to  preach  Germany's  great  "Mission" 
to  the  world.  She  herself  was  to  write 
it  later  in  the  flames  of  Louvain  and 
Rheims. 

Her  designs  on  the  world's  possessions 
were,  it  is  true,  more  or  less  skillfully 
concealed  by  an  outward  show  of  friend- 
liness. She  sang  lullaby s  of  "peace"  to 
the  nations.  The  nations  heard  the 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        207 

soothing  strains — and  dozed.  Even  when 
foreign  generals  and  officers  were  invited 
to  witness  the  manoeuvres  of  the  German 
armies  at  the  great  Reviews,  they  came 
away  convinced  all  the  German  bands 
were  playing  hymnal  praise  of  peace. 
Germany  took  no  pains  to  hide  her 
growth  in  power.  She  asked  half  the 
world  to  come  and  celebrate  her  opening 
of  the  Kiel  Canal;  yet  those  who  ac- 
cepted half  believed  in  the  fraudulent 
suavities  repeated  again  and  again — 
that  Germany  was  increasing  her  naval 
force  solely  to  protect  her  commerce. 

The  attitude  of  Germany  towards 
France  since  Sedan  has  been  one  of 
scarcely  concealed  envy.  The  rapidity 
with  which  France  recovered  after  her 
crushing  defeat  in  1870;  her  amazing 
industrial,  commercial  and  financial  de- 
velopment after  the  smashing  blow  to 


208  HEROIC  FRANCE 

her  prosperity,  proved  her  the  first 
nation  in  Europe  in  point  of  view  of 
thrift,  of  financial  soundness  and  of  re- 
cuperative strength.  Bismarck  had 
counted  on  France  "being  rendered 
powerless"  for  at  least  fifty  years,  after 
paying  the  war  indemnity  of  £200,000,- 
000,  or  $1,000,000,000.  In  less  than 
twenty  years  she  had  become  the  bankers 
of  Europe.  To  offset  the  loss  of  her  two 
productive  provinces,  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine, France  has  pushed  the  interests  of 
her  colonies  in  Africa,  Egypt,  and  in 
China  to  become  contributive  elements 
to  France's  prosperity.  Her  clever  and 
gifted  diplomats  have  proved  to  Europe 
that  the  atmosphere  of  courts  was  not 
needed  to  develop  statesmanlike  talents, 
since  they  could  proudly  point  to 
"L'Entente  Cordiale"  as  the  master 
stroke  of  modern  French  diplomacy. 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        209 

That  Paris  also  should  continue  to 
be  the  literary,  artistic,  theatrical  and 
mondaine  centre  of  the  world,  the  gayest 
as  well  as  the  most  beautiful  of  cities, 
has  been  a  bitter  blow  to  German  civic 
and  national  pride.  Why  should  Unter 
den  Linden,  peopled  with  wonderful, 
modern  statues,  fail  to  attract  the  world 
that  mistakenly  prefers  the  Champs 
Elysees  and  the  Bois  de  Boulogne — 
meagerly  decorated  with  marble  "master- 
pieces?" 

Germany  has  been  taught  many  things 
in  the  last  forty  years.  A  true  feeling 
and  a  profound  knowledge  for  art;  a 
reverence  for  artistic  and  architectural 
masterpieces,  are  alas!  tastes  that  cannot 
be  taught.  Artistic  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful  is  a  matter  of  slow  growth. 
Centuries  of  progress  and  the  slow  de- 
posit of  artistic  sensibilities  in  genera- 


210  HEROIC  FRANCE 

tions  of  men  build  up  that  rare  quality 
we  call  taste.  Without  this  delicate 
flowering  of  a  nation's  development,  no 
real  art  flourishes. 

Sparta  was  a  military  state;  but  it  is 
the  influence  of  Athens  that  has  survived 
the  downfall  of  classical  Greece.  It 
is  Athenian  art  and  literature  that  have 
been  the  fructifying  element  throughout 
the  world.  Ideas  that  take  on  forms  of 
beauty;  ideas  embodied  in  beauty  of 
form — it  is  these  spiritualized,  etherial- 
ized  emanations  of  creative  genius  that 
alone  put  on  immortality. 

The  discovery  of  Aristotle's  works  gave 
birth  to  the  Renascent  spirit  in  Italy; 
the  art  of  Greece  and  her  literature 
are  the  masterpieces  other  nations  copy 
— and  rarely  if  ever  have  equaled. 

The  spirit  that  animated  Sparta  was 
the  positive,  utilitarian,  military  spirit. 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        211 

But  it  is  ideas,  and  not  the  soul  of  a 
nation  bent  to  purely  material  ends,  to 
military  despotism,  that  survive. 

The  spirit  of  militarism  that  has  pre- 
vailed throughout  Prussianized  Germany 
has  largely  killed  that  refined,  intellectual 
delight  in  beauty  that  made  Goethe  the 
master-poet  and  artist,  that  inspired 
German  Art  critics  of  the  mid -nineteenth 
century,  and  that  made  Heine  an  im- 
mortal. Germany's  mistaken  ideas  of 
"Kultur"  are  therefore  self-doomed.  For 
not  only  does  she  consider  her  intellectual 
and  scientific  development  as  supreme, 
but  she  has  conceived  the  dangerous 
doctrine  of  insisting  that  the  mighty 
military  base  on  which  rests  the  whole 
structure  of  her  might  fits  her  pre- 
eminently for  governing  the  world.  Now, 
no  military  state  has  ever  long  survived. 
If  for  no  other  cause,  the  ambition  of 


HEROIC  FRANCE 

those  who  lead  or  head  such  a  state 
doom  the  system  to  final  destruction, — as 
was  the  case  with  the  Roman  Empire. 
In  our  times  and  century  this  attempt 
to  turn  back  the  clock  is  a  particularly 
dangerous  expedient.  The  whole  trend 
of  modern  development  since  the  French 
Revolution  and  the  American  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  has  been  towards 
freedom,  equality,  and  the  loosening  up 
of  the  rigors  of  governmental  control. 
This  German  ideal  of  the  training  of  a 
whole  nation  into  a  machine  is  contrary 
to  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the  age.  Every- 
thing mankind  has  been  fighting  for  for 
two  thousand  years  will  be  lost,  only,  it 
is  true,  to  be  reconquered,  were  Germany 
to  be  victorious.  For  were  even  the 
dreaded  worst  to  befall,  the  long,  old- 
world  struggle  would  but  begin  anew. 
The  spirit  of  man  reaches  towards  free- 


THE  CONTRAST  IN  IDEALS        213 

dom,  as  a  blade  of  grass  pushes  its  frail, 
but  sufficient  strength  upwards  through 
the  earth  clod.  Through  revolutions 
and  revolts  the  unconquered,  uncon- 
querable human  spirit  struggles  on  to 
higher  forms  of  development.  The  slow 
but  grinding  process  of  spiritual  and 
moral  evolution  would  eventually  crush 
the  German  positivist  out  of  existence 
—for  the  soul  of  man  goes  marching  on. 
France  will  come  out  of  this  gigantic 
struggle  purified,  electrified.  For  a  time, 
as  has  been  the  case  in  every  great  war, 
her  soldiers  will  be  found  to  be  turbulent, 
restive,  difficult  as  civic,  assimilative 
forces.  And  the  nation  will  be  a  nation 
in  mourning.  Even  those  of  her  men 
who  return  will  suffer  from  the  effects 
of  their  hardships;  many  will  have  in- 
curable wounds  to  nurse  and  crippled 
frames  to  adapt  to  new  conditions. 


214  HEROIC  FRANCE 

But  France  has  passed  before  our 
day  beneath  the  rough  ploughshare  of 
war's  horrors.  Her  wars  have  planted 
their  seeds  of  heroism;  the  sap  will 
rise  again  and  bear  its  golden  fruit. 

Of  all  the  "dead  who  speak"— "les 
morts  qui  parlent" — none  will  catch  the 
inspiring  song  with  quicker  ear  than  the 
responsive,  emotional  French  people. 
She  will  rise  to  heights  she  has  never 
before  attained;  she  will  also  re-capture 
her  temporarily  lost,  inestimably  precious 
art.  For  above  all  other  nations  she  has 
learned  the  precious  lesson  and  has  whis- 
pered to  us  the  priceless  secret — the  joy 
of  living!  la  joie  de  vive. 

Long  live  France! 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
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^Sj 

% 

DEC   9   1946 

DfC  . 


NO19  M  -1PM  3  5 


LD  21-100m-12,'43  (8796s) 


YB  21427 


900759 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


